Sorting and Categorising

We have been sorting rocks into rock classification groups: sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic. Now it is time to sort other knowledge and see if we could understand how the year is organised around the seasons and why.

We have been sorting holidays:

• We have sorted holidays into the different seasons. 
• We have sorted holidays based on whether they are celebrations or commemorations. 
• We have sorted holidays based on why they are celebrated- because of a natural event (like the Matariki constellation) or a holiday of historical or cultural significance (like ANAZC Day). 

Finally we sorted harvest events of the calendar of traditional Maori. We noticed that Spring and Summer were very busy times for harvesting foods. We learnt from Carolena about how different cultural groups traditionally preserved foods. The Romans salted meat to make it keep for longer. Many cultural groups dried foods, including traditional Maori, and we still dry and salt food today.
Mrs Walker taught us about poha and she had a dried gourd for the science table for us to touch, shake and inspect. The gourd, once dried, made an excellent container.  Carolena and William thought cutting the bottom off would make a great bowl.

We could see why Matariki was a good time for the new year to start on the Maori Calendar, because after all of the food gathered in Spring and Summer was preserved and stored for the Winter the colder months didn't require as much work.  Zara said it would have been the perfect time to feast, when food was plentiful and so much work had been done. Marley realised that because it was cold too, they would have wanted to stay inside and work on learning new things. Maita thought everyone would want to have fun and play games, then many children realised that children in particular would have probably spent time playing with titi torea.