Seniors at sea: Beach Week has begun!

This week our Seniors headed down to the beautiful Worser Bay for our annual Beach Week. We did a huge beach clean-up along Worser Bay beach and along Seatoun Beach, we filled up 3 big black bags! It was awesome to see the kids working together with real purpose, noticing how even small pieces of rubbish can impact the moana they love spending time in. We were lucky to be joined by Chloe from Enviroschools, who helped us explore how our choices affect local ecosystems. We love spending time with Chloe, she has a huge amount of knowledge to share and we always feel priveledged to be able to tap into it. One of the highlights was collaborating with Year 6 students from Kilbirnie School as our kids had the opportunity to share their knowledge of the Moanamana programme. They demonstrated how the science equipment works, how to collect data, and how to use the new app to record data. Beach Week continues next week when we head back down the hill for sailing with the Worser Bay Boast Club, always a huge favourite. We can't wait!

Build a bridge!

This week Māhutonga Matariki took on a new Survivor CHallenge: build a bridge using nothing but newspaper and tape. The task looked simple at first, but we quickly discovered that designing a structure that could actually hold weight required creative thinking, problem-solving, and a fair bit of trial and error. Before building began, the groups discussed what makes a strong structure. Many kids identifoed that folded newspaper (or rolled tubes) worked like beams, and that shapes such as triangles help spread weight more evenly, structures with added piles worked well too. From there, teams got straight into constructing as they only had 20 minutes to get the job done! Each bridge was put under pressure to see how much weight it could hold (in the form of Jenga blocks!). 5 out of 11 teams managed to hold all 63 blocks on their bridges, earning them full points for the leaderboard. Alongside the engineering challenge, we continued our Pos Ed focus on communication and Positive Relationships. The kids practiced clear instructions, active listening, and collaborative decision-making skills. We think they did a fantatsic job of it.

Makers Day: Mass Production of Amazing, To Die for Products...

 

We have been furiously creating, working to make the products we have designed in time for next week's Inventors Market Day!

The ideas are quite extraordinary and truly original, reflecting the highly creative thinkers in our whānau. 

The Market Day will be the culmination of a lot of work. This work includes studying the inventions and innovations of others, identifying the elements of the design process and then, after brainstorming, putting the design process into action. 

Some of us are still at the stage of making a prototype while others are well into MASS PRODUCTION!

Please keep an eye out for Inventors Market Day! details in this week's Newsletter. 

 

Mapping an Imaginary World.

 Mapping an Imaginary World: Getting Creative Again!

We have been thinking about what authors do to create their stories. They have to create whole worlds, worlds with their own rules, laws of physics even. We think that picturing a place is perhaps the first step in this world building.

 And, of course these worlds are 'peopled' with imaginary characters. Many of these characters are much loved. Think Harry Potter and Hermione, Mole, Winnie the Pooh; they are practically part of the family!

It is early days in this project so these maps are just examples of our first ideas. We can't wait to see where the creative brains will go with this!

Leonardo da Vinci's Brain!

As part of our Inquiry, explrong the world of invention and innovation we have kept coming across an important name, thaty of Leonardo da Vinci. Asking questions to discover more about him, not just the simple biographical details but wondering things like; What inspired him? How have his ideas impacted on the modern world? What enabled him to think in such a remarkable way? As well as writing about him we have made diagrams to illustrate some of his thought processes. This is a diagram of Leonardo da Vinci’s brain. Clearly he was thinking about much more than the Mona Lisa!

Come to check out our ideas including our writing on the walls of the classroom.

Eastern Zones Athletics Day

We had a fantastic day at the Eastern Zones Athletics Day this week, ka pai to all of our senior school competitors.