Maui and the Sun

We read the Maori myth, 'Maui me te Rangi' and also watched the video of Peter Gossage's book,  'How Maui Slowed the Sun'.  This is read in Te Reo with English subtitles.  It was interesting to pick up how many words we knew, and hear the rhythm and pace of the Maori language.

How Maui Slowed the Sun by Peter Gossage

It was also interesting to hear how people in the olden days explained natural phenomenon, such as   shorter daylight hours in winter, through colourful, traditional myths.   Nowadays, scientists explain that the reason days are longer in summer, while they are shorter in winer, is due to the Earth's tilt on its axis.  The hemisphere that is closest to the Sun has the longest, brightest days because it gets more direct light from the Sun's rays.

We used cotton buds, instead of brushes, to apply the dye.  We tried very carefully to stay in the lines and not load our applicator up with too much dye.

Here is a finished sun to illustrate our re-telling of the Maori myth.

Before we even started our illustrations, we listened to the story again.  Once we had the main ideas in our heads, we brainstormed some of the key words we would need in our stories.  Then we wrote our own plan using verbs that described exactly what happened.  Over the next few days, we re-told the myth using our own words from our plan.  

This is Nico's story, but you can read them all on the Reading page.