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Tag Archives: Discovery Centres

Discover Love Festival Poetry Competition winner!

19 February 2013 – 9.40am

Valentine’s Day is over, but let’s keep the love in our hearts with some love poetry from Te Papa’s visitors. Children visiting Inspiration Station were asked to write a poem about love. It could be about a person (like your mum or dad), a thing (like a hobby or pet), or a place (like Te Papa!). Anything, as long as they loved it!

From Beatnik to Shakespearean, we had all styles. With no further ado, here are the winning poems!

4 to 8 category winner!

Phoebe Hayward, age 4:

I love to swim in the pool

It is cool

It is cold

I’ll still love swimming when I’m old

It is cool, having a pool, at my school

4 to 8 category highly commended

Shakira, age 8:

Love is a feeling from deep inside, it’s not just a little feeling, it’s deep down in you.

The most important feeling of all

Rahzel Solomon, age 5:

I love you,

You love me,

We are the best in the coutry.

9 to 12 category winner!

Briana Ranstead, age 10:

I’m falling, falling, falling cause you’re all I see.

Thinking, thinking, thinking of you, and of me.

My mind is always with you, my heart, body and soul.

Your spirit’s always wild, like a young, galloping foal.

I have just one thing to tell you, and I really hope you see:

I really really LOVE you, you, and me.

9 to 12 category highly commended

Georgina, age 9:

Love is like a lobster sometimes

It is sharp but it tastes good!

Trinity, age 10:

Love is contagious

like a flu or cold

I love my family

so I write it in BOLD!

We were really impressed with our young poets. I hope you like them as much as we did!

By ruthbhendry | Posted in Kids | Also tagged love poem, poetry, Valentine's Day | Comments (1)

All action after school club

15 January 2013 – 3.46pm

A team from the Discovery Centres recently spent nine Wednesday afternoons together with nine awesome tamariki (children) in a trial run of Te Papa’s first after school club.

Through the after school club we wanted to learn, together with the tamariki, about the stories Te Papa tells. We also wanted to find out how everyone can connect to Te Papa’s collections and use them to tell our own stories.

External speakers came in to talk to the after school club about all sorts of topics, from Samoan sasa to stick insects.

The first week saw Alistair from Wellington Photographic Supplies show us how to make the whole classroom into a big camera obscura. The tamariki built their own pinhole cameras and took photos of objects and scenery around Te Papa.

After School Club posing for the pinhole camera. Photo: Kimberley Gustavsson. © Te Papa.

Another week we discovered karetao (traditional Māori puppets) with Ati from the Discovery Centres, and got to build our own contemporary ones with the help of Rich from Ponoko. The tamariki created characters and environments for the karetao, designed them and wrote their mihi (greetings).

Carson and his karetao Photo: Kimberley Gustavsson. © Te Papa.

Karson and his karetao. Photo: Kimberley Gustavsson. © Te Papa.

After karatao came a field trip! Ricardo Palma, an entomologist, took us on a special tour of the Tory Street building, where Te Papa’s zoological specimens are kept. The tamariki got to choose which insects to learn about: weta, stick insects and beetles were high on the list.

From insects to dancing in just one week: Crystal from the Discovery Centres showed us how to dance the Samoan sasa with style. We interpreted the sasa to tell the stories of people who travelled to New Zealand from the PacificIslands, learning NZ history and dancing skills at the same time!

With all that hard work, the tamariki deserved a reward – and they got one! At the end of the after school club, the tamariki curated their own exhibition, showing the karetao and pinhole cameras to the public. Frith and Helen from Te Papa’s writing team talked to us about how to write labels for exhibition objects and the tamariki wrote one for their karetao.

The exhibition now sits proudly in Inspiration Station, on Level 4. It was great to have the tamariki and their whānau (family) join us for the opening of the exhibition, complete with a blessing and delicious kai (food).

Rangimoana Taylor blessing the After School Club’s exhibition Photo: Kimberley Gustavsson. © Te Papa.

This is the first after school club exhibition at Te Papa and we’re really proud of all the tamariki who have taken part. They did a fantastic job on the exhibition, so please check it out. You’ll see some unusual karetao – from a free-running ninja to a sky spirit!

Thanks to everyone who helped to make the after school club so special.

By ruthbhendry | Posted in Education, Kids | Also tagged After school club, entomology, Exhibitions, karetao, photography, pinhole camera | Comments (1)

Why I love Christchurch

7 September 2010 – 12.33pm

When I got to work this morning, this was waiting for me:

Why I love Christchurch by Hikairoa from South New Brighton

A few weeks back, we asked pupils from some of the schools in New Zealand to send us a postcard telling them why they love their town for our Conservation Week display. This year the theme is We Love You, New Zealand. One of the participating schools is Chirstchurch’s South New Brighton School, and here is a sample of what they sent. The postcards we got back were most likely sent at the end of last week, certainly before Christchurch was shaken by an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale. Here are some more cards:

Why I love Christchurch, by Jireh of South New Brighton School

Well, we love Christchurch too. We love Christchurch for all the reasons you’re reading, and because they’re tough. In the middle of the devastation, there’s still the resolve to keep going. Every day, I’ve been seeing pictures of buildings that aren’t usable any more. There’s pictures of roads and bridges that have been thrown around like cardboard. But there just aren’t any pictures of people giving up. And there aren’t any pictures from the rest of New Zealand of people shrugging their shoulders and saying anything about how that’s too tough and too bad.

The pukeko is why Yasmin loves Christchurch

Matthew loves the plants of Christchurch

So, a big thank you to the children and teachers of South New Brighton School. These postcards show that every place has tiny little treasures and things that everyone loves. Maybe inside this there’s a little Cantabrian kickstart and a reason to keep the faith and keep moving.

Because of this, we’re going to make our own project bigger. The bottom two pictures on this page are the front and back of a postcard that you can download and print out. Then you can stick both sides together, slap on a stamp and send them to us at this address:

Discovery Centres

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

PO Box 467

Wellington 6140

Tell us what you love about your town. We’ll put them on display in NatureSpace from September 12 onwards, and a pin in the map for every town we get a reply from. And right now seems to be a really good time for Aotearoa to show some aroha.

This is the back of the postcard - right click to savethis is the front of the postcard - right click to save

This is the front of the postcard - right click to save

By discoverymike | Posted in Kids | Also tagged 2010, 2010 Canterbury Earthquake, Christchurch earthquake, Conservation Week, NatureSpace, postcard | Comments (1)

our giant kākāpō

3 August 2010 – 2.32pm

the Words on a Wing kakapo in NatureSpace | (c) Te Papa 2010

Look at NatureSpace’s newest visitor! This stylish mesh and steel kākāpō is two and a half metres long, a metre and a half tall, and is wearing a fashionable set of paper feathers covered in conservation-related messages from children. It ‘s part of the Words on a Wing campaign being run by the Department of Conservation, and it’s been a rather busy bird.

don't let the kakapo die! A filled in feather on the words on a wing kakapo | (c) Te Papa 2010

At the start of the year, somebody Very Important at DOC made a list of places for it to travel. It’s from Wellington, right? So it should go to Wellington Zoo. Check. Zealandia, check. Te Papa? Check. The Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan….check. Well, why not? It’s not like any other kākāpō is going to get the chance to go flying any time soon.

But there’s a hitch. A flaw. A kink. One that could keep the poor Kākāpō grounded at Wellington airport, sadly looking out the window as the plane to Japan takes off without it. See, we can’t get kākāpō a passport until Kākāpō has a name. This is serious stuff, and we need your help.

one of the feathers filled out by New Zealand children for the Words on a Wing project | (c) Te Papa

Come into NatureSpace on level 2 between today and when Te Papa closes on August 23. Fill out a feather and inform some powerful people what your views are on conservation and kaitiakitanga (looking after the planet). Then grab an entry form and tell us what you think we should call Kākāpō. If our bunch of esteemed bird experts likes your name best of all, then we will send you and your family for a day surrounded by gorgeous native creatures in Zealandia. For free!

Not only that, but world-famous New Zealander Sirocco Kākāpō will announce the choice to the world every which way as fast as he can type (and he’s getting pretty good). The most famous kākāpō in the world is going to make you famous too!

Besides Te Papa, Kākāpō can be found in peaceful forest settings and on the

Discovery Centre host Keryn puts a feather onto the Words on a Wing kakapo | (c) Te Papa 2010

internet. Here are some peaceful electric glades you can find a Kākāpō or two:

1. This quiz about kākāpō that the Kiwi Consvervation Club put together.

2. The Words on a Wing page at DOC. It comes with photos so you can see where Kākāpō has been. There’s also a kit so you can make your own kākāpō in two or three dimensions. Astounding!

3. The hard-working men and women of the Kākāpō Recovery programme have their own website. They’re based out of Whenua Hou-Codfish Island, which is off the west coast of Stewart Island. You can read about everything they do, and even follow it on their blog.

4. We in the Discovery Centres are not just pretty faces, though many of us are pretty, and those that aren’t pretty are quite handsome. If you go to our website, you can see what we have to visit, and maybe check out some of our cool school art projects, like the work that Te Kura Māori o Porirua did for Te Huka ā Tai. Definitely worth coming in for!

By discoverymike | Posted in Birds, Events, Kids | Also tagged biodiversity, competition, Department of Conservation, International Year of Biodiversity, kakapo, kids, NatureSpace, Words on a Wing, Zealandia | Comments (7)

A Day of Legends

14 July 2010 – 4.48pm

Luke and Anton fish up the North Island in our Te Huka ā Tai Whānau Day | (c) Te Papa

On Wednesday, several children came to Te Huka ā Tai at Te Papa and fished up the Te Ika a Māui (the North Island). And why not? After a long and lovely day soaking in some of the scariest, hairiest, chilling and thrilling myths and legends Aotearoa has produced, it just seemed…you know…like a good thing to do. Also, there were prizes.

They did this just like our trickster slickster hero Māui -tikitiki-a-Taranga, who was a bit of an overachiever, when you think about it. Do you know how big the sun is, how far away it is, and perhaps most importantly for any person thinking of tying it up with a giant rope, just how hot it is? The answers are (1) a million earths could fit inside, (2) about 150 million kilometres away and (3) about 5,500 degrees celcius. And Māui, he put the hard word on the sun, and it did what it was told and slowed down!

Now, imagine also that you were the sister of the goddess of the underworld, and you discovered that some little trickster had fliched your five fingers of fire. That’s Māui again! And the fingernails belonged to Mahuika, who was the little sister of Hine-nui-te-pō, and he tricked her. Āue!

It wasn’t just Māui who turned up that day. Rotorua legend Hatupatu was there. There were some scary silver-skinned Patupaiarehe and some mad mean Maero (and if you know what Maero are, you know that it’s hard to get them to behave themselves). There were superheroes like Gwil here, who got face painted and fierce.

tahi rua toru whā...pukana! |(c) Te Papa

Of course, fierce isn’t everyone’s flavour, and our face painters were more than happy to help anyone looking for something a bit less ferocious.

There are lots and lots and lots of good and entertaining books about Māori myths and legends in every library in the country (including ours) and you should very definitely go and explore them for yourselves. Who knows what you might find?

Two best friends from Taranaki came to the Whānau day | (c) Te Papa

By discoverymike | Posted in Events, Kids, Māori | Also tagged Family Day, myths, Māori, Māui, school holidays, Te Huka a Tai, Whānau, Whānau Day | Comments (0)

Sphenodon punctatus

12 July 2010 – 4.15pm

At the halfway point of the school holidays already, and it’s time to bring out the big guns. We need to keep the kids entertained, and what better way than with a real life sphenodon punctatus? Great idea, and luckily for us, there’s several real ones, just up the road at Victoria University. Even luckier for us, they don’t mind dropping by Te Papa and showing them off.

So it was that several of us were all in NatureSpace at the same time to see our own repitilian ripsnorter.

Charley and Spike in NatureSpace | (c) Te Papa 2010

His name was Spike, and he was very gracious, sitting in his box waiting for a cameo while his handler Sue gave us a full and thorough rundown of the world of a tuatara.

Sue and Spike from Victoria University at NatureSpace, July 2010 | (c) Te Papa 2010

And interesting? Boy was it! Did you know these amazing things?

Tuatara metabolism is so slow that they can survive for maybe five years without food.
A tuatara is born with a third eye. It’s a sensory organ that helps the newborn monitor its melatonin levels. Melatonin is a chemical that people and other animals have to help their bodies maintain circadian rhythms, which are the routines programmed into our (and a tuatara’s) brain. The third eye closes over as a tuatara gets older (and by old we mean OLD, because the oldest alive that we know of, Henry from Southland Museum is 110, and they could possibly get as old as 250).
A tuatara can hold its breath for nearly an hour. And, if that’s not enough, they can grow their tails back, if they’re careless and lose it under the fridge. And if you’re looking for more interesting information, how about this one, which I found care of the Ngati Koata trust,who look after Tuatara on Takapourewa Island in Cook Strait: A young tuatara will hunt during the day, to avoid being eaten by an adult tuatara at night.

After Sue had give her most excellent talk, the children set about to make their own tuatara. Ours were crafty cardboard creations, and there were some pretty fine and imaginative examples, such as the leopard print, or the one with the big black bushy eyebrows. And then there was the more realistic examples, as shown below: two pictures are examples of classic tuatara behaviour: sunbathing on rocks and devouring insects. And the bottom picture is the one I think sums it up: Xandi with his own rockstar reptile - the perfect end to a perfect day.

A tuatara crunching into a nice juicy waterbug in NatureSpace | (c) Te Papa 2010

three tuatara sunbathing on a "rock" in NatureSpace | (c) Te Papa 2010

Xandi in NatureSpace with his fantastic creation | (c) Te Papa

By discoverymike | Posted in Kids, Reptiles | Also tagged Discovery Hour, kids, NatureSpace, school holidays, tuatara | Comments (3)

a weevil the size of a football that I shall mention at the end

1 July 2010 – 7.59pm

Rest assured, we in the Discovery Centres are working very, very hard for you. We know that for most children, two weeks away from the blackboard is a thought not worth thinking, and we have a whole slate of great diversions to take your mind off THE THING WE WON’T MENTION. You know, the two weeks without sch…nothing.

And when we say that there is a whole barrel of interesting things going down, we’re not kidding. More than a barrel, there is a fridge stored inside a tanker being hauled by two helicopters, one piloted by a dragon, the other by a fairy princess. One of our holiday highlights has to do with this bro’Town interactive that our hard-working hosts Herbert and Jessica have magicked into being. Have a look:

The new bro'town laughter lines interactive being installed in Inspiration Station (c) Te Papa, 2010

Look at it! Isn’t it magnificent? It looks even better now, because it’s fully operational, wall-mounted and ready for your artistic hard work. Doesn’t that make you feel better about your school-less fortnight? Not enough? How about all the activities we’ve got planned for you? Four Discovery Centre hours covering a whole range of activities, everything from tī rākau (playing sticks) to Samoan tattooing, to the very important visit of some Very Improtant People, in this case, the cast of bro’Town! A Very Important Reptile will also drop by: a real life, living breathing tuatara. Surely, that’s got to take the edge off the 336 hours you have to endure waiting to be let back into a classroom.

Still not enough? Craft yourself into a frenzy! That will make the 20,160 minutes pass that much more sweetly. You can pick from one of over a dozen craft activities. You like Japanese dolls? Be here on July 3, and we’ll make one together. Maybe you’re like Bruce Wayne – more of a pekapeka person. Well, you’re sorted too. Just be here on July 8, and you can shimmy up a short-tailed bat mask. What else could you want? Tongan drums? Jandals in July? A completely classy and cleverly cool Tīpare? A perfectly pretty but perhaps perplexing thaumatrope? Done.

Now, on to the weevil. The New Zealand Schools’ Photographic Competition winners are out and up onto our Discovery Centre walls: brilliant work done by kids who came up with a way to meet the challenge of capturing one of two tricky themes – “Celebrate” or “From the Paddock to the Plate”.

Bryce McQuillian's photographs in the Discovery Centre offices

And to do this, we had to somewhat relectantly take down the astounding close-up photography of Bryce McQuillan. As you can see from what is clearly also a photographic masterpiece here, they have been keeping a low profile in our office. But even that’s not a problem (unless you don’t like bugs and work in our office, then I suppose it could be a problem). If it’s close up bugs you want, then just take a trip to NatureSpace on level 2, because we have 28 of them waiting for you to put them under the microscope. Maybe we’ll see you at Te Papa for a few of the 1.2 million seconds you’ll have free this July?

By discoverymike | Posted in Events, Kids | Also tagged activities, craft, Inspiration Station, kids, NatureSpace, photography, PlaNet Pasifika, school holidays, Te Huka a Tai | Comments (1)

When You’re Two

1 July 2010 – 3.36pm

The earliest memory I have of my youth takes me back to approximately age three. I was finishing the weekly “playgroup” session with a few neighbours my age which had been held at my house that time. My mother was getting ready to drive the other kids home when my dad returned from work. I remember being given the choice of staying with Dad or riding in the car with Mother. I had an idea that I would prefer Dad to take my friends home and I’d ride with him. Of course, that wasn’t an option. Maybe I remember the situation because of my strong emotional reaction and/or the scene I caused.

I thought back to my stubbornness yesterday when I met a two-year-old child who wanted to walk around and swing one of our new ukuleles in the PlaNet Pasifika Discovery Centre. I explained to him that he was welcome to play the instrument but that he should take good care of it so other people could play it, too.

I know it’s hard trying to figure out how the world works. I’m still searching for many answers, myself!

Ukuleles in PlaNet Pasifika Photo by Anna Sheffield © Te Papa 2010

I’m relieved to report that our interaction resulted in a great singing and strumming session for longer than I would have expected a two year old to be able to focus (around twenty minutes, I think). I hope he’ll come back to play again, someday. If he does, I’ll try to entice him into doing a puzzle to change his focus before he’s mentally exhausted.

I feel grateful for good parents, like his, who manage to find that balance between honouring their offspring and respecting the products and services we provide as the national museum.

I’m really excited to be able to speak out on behalf of the Discovery Centres here at Te Papa. In honour of the boy who gave me inspiration for my first post I have written a very short poem.

When you’re two

Options aren’t so clear to you.

If it seems

Like choosing limits your dreams

You may find

That the world feels less unkind

With a song.

Don’t forget to sing along!

By Anna Sheffield | Posted in Kids, Pacific | Also tagged kids, music, PlaNet Pasifika, Ukuleles | Comments (0)

Christmas tree tikis at Te Papa

23 December 2009 – 9.23pm

It’s Christmas at Te Papa and this year’s Christmas tree decorations are on a pounamu and paua theme.

Te Papa's pounamu and paua Christmas tree

The colourful creations include tikis as you’ve never seen them before! Here’s one with fabulous tropical looking flowers…

Tiki decorations on the Te Papa Christmas tree

But my favourite tiki is this one with it’s red sparkly hearts…

Christmas tree tiki with sequins at Te Papa

If you’d like to make a decoration to add to the tree come along to Te Huka a Tai, the Discovery Centre on Level 4.

http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/WhatsOn/allevents/Pages/MakeaChristmasdecoration12dec.aspx

Or to see the pounamu hei tiki that inspired these tiki creations, plus many more hei tiki made from pounamu, check out the Kura Pounamu exhibition on level 4 and the pounamu website.

http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/exhibitions/pounamu

Meri kirihimete!

By pamelalovis | Posted in Exhibitions, Kids, Māori | Also tagged Christmas, Christmas trees, hei tiki, pounamu, Te Huka a Tai | Comments (4)

Awesome artworks arrive in PlaNet Pasifika

10 December 2009 – 3.01pm

You may have noticed when you go to L4′s Discovery Centre, PlaNet Pasifika that there are always very cool and beautiful artworks in the space. They usually hang from the high ceiling. These artworks are created by children from various schools all around New Zealand. Staff go out to certain schools and work with them on creating amazing artworks especially for this area.

The artworks up at the moment were created by thirty students from Room 5 at St Bernadette’s Primary School in Naenae, Lower Hutt. These were formally launched at PlaNet Pasifika, Te Papa on Tuesday 3 November 2009 at 9.30am.

St Bernadette's School Culture group performing an item

The launch involved a blessing of the artworks and a performance from the school’s culture group to celebrate the students’ achievement. 75 representatives from St Bernadette’s came along to this special ceremony.

Students with their artworks suspending from the ceiling

The artworks were inspired by traditional myths and legends from the Pacific Island communities in New Zealand – Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Tuvalu, Tokelau, Cook Islands and Niue.

Tell us what you can see in the picture – what is one of the stories behind it?

Proud moment

It was truly a wonderful experience to see the St Bernadette’s children, teachers and the caregivers arrive at Te Papa, all dressed up in their dance outfits carrying pate (Cook Island drums) and other musical instruments. It was clear that the day was going to be fun, exciting and memorable.

To the manuhiri’s (our guests’) amazement, they were welcomed into the warmth and calmness of PlaNet Pasifika by the Te Papa whanau, with the beautiful sounds of putatara (conch shells) and pukaea (trumpets). This put a smile and tears of joy to many of our visitors.

Morning tea for our St Bernadettes friends

Morning tea for our visitors

Following the Blessing ceremony everyone joined together for morning tea. We presented a small gift to the school, and each student was given a certificate of achievement to mark the special occasion.

A gift from Te Papa presented to the Principal of St Bernadette's school

I am proud of the beautiful artworks that the students have produced. I am greatful for the time, commitment and effort that both St Bernadette’s school and the Te Papa staff put into this project and I am proud to be involved in such a magnificent project. What a joy….

These artworks will be on display here until October next year – come and see them.

By lutelangi | Posted in Pacific | Also tagged Pacific, Pacific Island, PlaNet Pasifika, school | Comments (1)

Te Papa's Blog

Tag Archives: Discovery Centres

Discover Love Festival Poetry Competition winner!

All action after school club

Why I love Christchurch

our giant kākāpō

A Day of Legends

Sphenodon punctatus

a weevil the size of a football that I shall mention at the end

When You’re Two

Christmas tree tikis at Te Papa

Awesome artworks arrive in PlaNet Pasifika

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