Netball

We’re from the Worser Bay Netball Team and on Wednesday 15th of May we competed against 4 different schools: St Anthony's, Lyall Bay, Holy Cross and St Patrick's School.

We tried our hardest and managed to have fun as well as doing our best. On the first game we were all energised up and ready to play. The first team we played were really good, but so were we. We drew with a score of two. The next game we tried our hardest but lost. Next we played an amazing school and once again lost. On our last game we gathered all our energy and won. We returned back to school, tired and puffed, though we were proud.

Māori History

This week we jumped in to a bit of reading and research about the legendary Māori explorer Kupe. With our new Inquiry, Whāia Ngā Whetū (Follow the Stars), we are starting to think about what kind of place Whetūkairangi would've been when Kupe came across it over 800 years ago.

We know how beautiful our view is - now we are wondering what the tāngata whenua might've been thinking about as they gazed out at the same magnificent scene. 

We are also starting to think about things like the staggering distances covered by Māori travellers at that time, in waka hourua, or twin-hulled waka. We watched a fascinating video about Hekenukumai (Hek) Busby, who built a waka hourua and sailed to Rarotonga to recreate a journey like that of Kupe.

Hekenukumai (Hek) Busby - a great leader and tohunga (skilled person)

The most exciting part about all this is the many connections we are making with other learning areas. Not only are we building our understanding of Te Ao and Te Reo Māori, we are also developing our skills in English Literacy - reading, watching and listening to heaps of interesting stuff! There was also a chance to put our character writing skills to good use in describing Hek Busby. There are chances for Mathematics learning around Māori navigation and construction techniques and, the Arts! Don't even get us started on the Arts...

You can watch the video here: https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/kupe-voyaging-by-the-stars-1993

Awe

Dr. Fredrickson has been studying positive emotions. Her data reveals that negative emotions, like fear, can close down our ability to function, while positive emotions open us up to possibility, and an increased ability to move forward. 

We are learning what feelings and emotions are, understanding how and why they happen, recognising our own feelings and those of others. We are developing effective ways of managing them. Emotions are an intrinsic part of learning.

We talk about emotions so that students: 

• understand that there are different emotions (anger, sadness, worry, embarrassment, excitement, happiness, guilt etc)

• understand that emotions vary in intensity from mild to strong

• understand that emotions are triggered by thoughts and situations

• able to identify emotions in self and others

• able to express emotions and take steps to cope with negative emotions.

We have been unpacking the the meaning of the emotion, awe. 

We are appreciating and sketching the beautiful view at school! We feel awe. 

Awe by Evie  
Awe is part of the word Awesome. It is linked to happiness and when you see something that you really like. For example, I felt awe when I was walking along the street when I saw a seal fighting with a octopus in the sea. They were fighting for fish. We walked along the wharf and then they somewhere in the deep blue sea. Awe is also like a sign of amazement. Another reason for someone to feel awe is when they might see 750,000 dominos fall down on to the floor. I always love to feel awe.

Awe by Nell  
Milly walks closer to the singer. A light glows red and a word appears. AWE. Me!!!! I punch the air and race through the other feelings. You see us feelings live in Milly’s head. When she is feeling sad we send sad. Joy we send joy and Awe, well they send me. I run and push my way through the crowd of feelings to the action room. 
 ‘You're late’ said grumpy. ‘I know. But it is my first time’ he grumbles and I get on the action bed. I breath in slowly and I open my mouth, close it, say stuff like, Wow and Brilliant. I pretend to be speechless and then... it’s over. The singer is finished the action bed stops lighting up, the board now says sadness, and I know why. Why couldn’t I be sad or happy or even confusion. Sadness runs in and I get of the bed. I walk out of the room to be greeted by confusion. ‘Hey, morning good, day lovely. Matter what Awe?’ ‘Hi, confusion. It is a nice day. I am fine.’ I lie. Thats another feeling I could have been. Milly lies a lot. I walk through the crowd, and to my house. Better luck next time Awe. I tell myself. For once I am not feeling as awesome as I should be.

Awe by Nela 
Awe is a feeling, something you only experience once in a while. You will feel awe when you see something beautiful or something different for example if you saw a beautiful sunset or sunrise you would feel awe. If you saw a beautiful painting you would feel awe. If you went and experienced something amazing you would feel awe, you may recognise it from the word awesome which is more modern but means the same thing. Awesome is more of a word you would use in writing to explain something and awe is more of a feeling but they connect in the same way. Feeling awe is one of my favourite things to feel. It relaxes me, seeing or doing and experiencing something beautiful and amazing will change the way you look at things and put you in a good frame of mind in short, awe is awesome !!!!

What is awe? By Lily 
Awe is a feeling that you get when you see something that gets your mind rolling and turning about that was AWEsome or how do they do that? You have maybe felt awe for yourself when you have done something cool that you felt happy that you did it, or maybe someone did something and you felt GREAT for them. You could also feel it for arts like drama, a play you say thought it was AWEsome,or dance, singing, art or anything that inspires you.

Our Acceptable Use of Technologies Agreement

Digital Citizenship runs through everything we do. We continuously come back to our Technology Agreement and break down what each part means. Our use of technology principles is to enhance learning, not substitute. It sits inside a whole child, fully balanced curriculum with Positive Education/ Wellbeing at the core.

NetSafe defines a Digital Citizen as someone who:

• is a confident and capable user of ICT
• uses technologies to participate in educational, cultural, and economic activities
• uses and develops critical thinking skills in cyberspace
• is literate in the language, symbols, and texts of digital technologies
• is aware of ICT challenges and can manage them effectively
• uses ICT to relate to others in positive, meaningful ways
• demonstrates honesty and integrity and ethical behaviour in their use of ICT
• respects the concepts of privacy and freedom of speech in a digital world
• contributes and actively promotes the values of digital citizenship.

Positive Health: These students are looking after themselves by looking after their bodies (their backs) while they work together online. We limit the amount of screen time and spend lots of time moving around. 

Positive Relationships: These students are working collaboratively to create. 

Positive Purpose: Our students have been working hard to develop systems to keep the technology safe and charged.

Whāia Ngā Whetū (Follow the Stars)

On Monday we went for a walk to the lookout and we began imagining if all the houses were gone and we went back 700 years. We thought that there would be mostly water because the sea was higher then. Apparently there were three smaller hapū where Roseneath School is now. We thought that the people of Whetūkairangi may have communicated with them using smoke signals.

The whare they lived in were really small, we tried making the outline of our own whare on middle court and quickly realised they were quite small. Matilda felt sorry for the child who had to sleep outside because the 6 beds needed wouldn't fit in her and Charlotte's whare. 

From our introduction to this new inquiry we have a few questions about the people of Whetūkairangi and how they lived:

'How did the Māori that lived here treat injuries?'

'How did they travel by stars if it was a cloudy night?'

'What was an average day like?'

'How did they make clothes?'

'Where did they keep in the food?'

'If they went on long trips in waka, where did they sleep?'

We're curious about where Tara and his ancestors came from, we think it might be somewhere in Polynesia. We think they might have travelled by waka and it would have taken a few hours!

By Chris, Edward, Raffy, Matilda and Charlotte.

The Winter Garden.

We have been planting a whole lot of new vegetables in the garden over the last week or so.  Cabbages, Kale, Kohlrabi (that sounds poetic) and many other goodies.  We have had to water because it has been so dry and warm.

Please help us out!  Bring in some seaweed, straw or anything that will keep the moisture around the plants and the weeds down.  Feel free to participate in our gardens; they belong to all of us!
Plant seedling if you see a space, help us weed and then when all the hard work comes to fruition, help us harvest.

Dr Jane Goodall Visits Miramar. And we were there!

Dr Jane Goodall, the famous scientist and environmentalist has been visiting New Zealand over the last week or so.  She spoke at the Michael Fowler Centre a few nights ago, then today she planted some trees with us in Centennial Reserve. 
Adam and Mitchell chose some trees to plant from our nursery/shade house.  They were Kohekohe, which in the past would have formed the bulk of the canopy in the Wellington/Te Whanganui-a-Tara area.

 

Mitchell and Adam with their Kohekohe.

Joakim from Te Motukairangi  restoration group spoke to Jane and explained the work that the group are doing in the area.  They have planted 15 000 plants in the area during the last 8 years.  Phenomenal work! And, we have been part of that journey now for the last four years.

                                                    Joakim and Dr. Jane Goodall discussing the planting.

Jane Goodall planting her tree at Centennial Reserve.

We ended up planting seven or eight Kohekohe alongside the track, with Mitchell and Adam doing most of the spade work.  It is great to see the satisfaction they get from this type of work. 

 Joakim told us all that Wellington City is the only city in the world in which biodiversity is increasing.  This is a result of the passion and hard work which so many people engage in.

'Where We Dance' Action Day!

Today we celebrated/actioned our learning in our 'Where We Dance' Inquiry. After our more recent learning around refugee experiences, we looked at ways to build social cohesion within our community. We considered how we might welcome new people to our community. We reflected on how we treat one another at a societal level and considered how we as children in Worser Bay can make a difference in our world.

So we started with our school. We introduced our website which outlines the fun and exciting things to do where WE dance.

"We are aiming to make more community bonds so there is no more violence" - Caspian

The students of Māhutonga/Matariki also set up workshops in which they could collaborate with students from Tautoru and Autahi in various activities. The senior students found Positive Purpose in their work, they also felt challenged in making workshops that kept the students engaged. 

"I really liked finding people of different ages that are interested in the same things as me" - Jake

"It was really fun because it was a time to catch up with Tautoru people" - Eddie

Overwhelming, the experience was enjoyable for all of our school and something we want to do again. Our senior students showed that they are role models and were incredibly encouraging towards the younger students. Watch this space as we broaden our community bonds to beyond Worser Bay School!

Building a Whare

This week, we started our new Inquiry, Whāia ngā whetū (Follow the Stars). We were focused on being thinkers and used our imagination to imagine what our pā site might have looked like between the 12th and 13th Century. Building a whare was some of the play that we created to imagine what the past was like.

We also have been taking action for our Inquiry about social connection and community resilience, "Where we Dance." We decided to take action by helping around the school. Some of us ran workshops, some of us did jobs. One of the jobs was building a whare. This is part of Positive Purpose and doing things for others.

The Hurricanes come to Worser Bay School

Last week, The Hurricanes came to visit. It was a wish from one of our students.

We asked them lots of questions. We found out that they need to train really hard and set goals. It is a bit like how we set goals and take small (Kaizen) steps to achieve these goals.

'Kaizen' is also known as continuous improvement or a 'change for the better'. Kaizen is a philosophy we implement at Worser Bay School. Kaizen is a Japanese word. Kai, meaning change and Zen meaning good. The type of change is small and incremental. Small changes in the right direction add up and eventually we are able to meet our big goal.

Mindfulness Meditation

What's this?  Sleeping students in the middle of the day?

Kind of, well actually they are BREATHING!  Slowing everything down and preparing for further learning.  We have been doing this everyday and many students are saying they feel so much better afterwards. 
The benefits of meditation, breathing and in this case, being guided, through positive thinking activities has being well documented.  These include:
*Reducing stress
*Controls anxiety
*Promotes emotional health
*Enhances self awareness
*Lengthens attention span
*Can generate kindness

                                                Oh, it is so peaceful............

If you would like to find out more or learn how to meditate yourself, here are some useful tips.
Meditation: Psychology Today 

Active Demonstration or Modelling

In the writing flow.

Active demonstration is an approach to learning about writing in which we all construct a piece together.  We heard a story about a friend of John's who is really colourful.  He is an artist and a musician amongst other things.  His name is also John.
During Active demonstration we model all of the things which good writer's do and we think aloud as we write, to show the process of constructing a story.
Before writing we made a list of all the things we need to think about as we write.  We realised that we could also use this for our goal setting for the session.

Character Writing: What do we need to keep in mind?

• Hook the reader in, keep them Hooked!
• Show don’t tell
• Paint a picture in the reader’s mind
• Drop straight into the action
• Remember to describe the setting

Characters:

• Describe them in ‘Action’
• Describe how they move and what they do
• Describe how they talk and what they say (using dialogue)
• Describe what they are thinking and feeling
• Describe how others react to them
• Describe their habits and special features
• Describe what they look like

*eyes, what do they do?

*teeth, what are they like?

*Hands

*Skin

*Clothes (if they are special or remarkable)

Lillian is thinking about the writing!

We wrote about John's hungry friend also called John.  

Furious!

I met him when I was 17.  He looked like a rat at the piano, fingers flying over the keys.  A piano playing rat.  A rat genius!  He was only ten years older than me, but he already behaved like an old man.  An old man at 26.  Be careful of this guy; he can be fun but he can also be poisonous.  His name is John Niland. 

"Don't call me John Island!"

"Where's my dinner", he yells stomping his foot, jumping up and down, a haka, his shaggy hair falling over his flashing eyes.  "I need to eat! Now!"

Angles are all around us!

We continued our look into angles and we have discovered that we can see them everywhere! This week in Maths we have been finding angles around our school, and we'd like to extend our search to home and beyond.

We have created this padlet as website where we can share our learning. Check it out and add the angles you discover!

Positive Accomplishment through Cross Country

Last Wednesday our students ran our annual Cross Country on Worser Bay Beach. Positive Accomplishment focuses on enabling individual growth through achieving meaningful outcomes. 

Students have been striving for goals. Achieving these goals has been highly rewarding. Our students have been embracing the Cross Country challenge with grit and determination. 

Sophie: This week my goal was to try my best at Cross Country, and I achieved this goal. The character strength I used was Perseverance as I had to keep running.

Ella: My cross country goal was to try my best. I did try my best. 

Nela: I showed good sportsmanship and paced myself so I did achieve my goals.

Solly: The Character Strengths I used was Bravery and Perseverance in Cross Country. I needed to use my Growth Mindset because I needed to change some of my tactics to move to a higher place. My goals went quite well because I did what I wanted to.

Nell: My goal was to try my hardest in cross country. I tried my hardest and completed it, not dragging behind. I had to walk some of it but tried to run and jog most. I almost gave up on the last half but I kept going and I made it! I am really proud. I loved clapping people on.

Octavia: I achieved my goal. My goal was to not stop and walk at any point in the race. I had to use Perseverance because I really wanted to stop and walk but I didn’t.

Rhosyn: I did use my Growth Mindset in Cross Country this week. I persevered and I am proud of myself!

Archie: I used the character strength of bravery because I kind of didn't want to do it. I felt happy at the end. I felt like I did a good job.

Talia: My goal was to persevere and support other people in cross country. I did good and I persevered and supported a lot of people. I persevered a lot while I was running and tried not to give up even though I was in a lot of pain.

Beatrix: I am grateful to have ran the course.

Evie: At Cross Country I achieved my goal by using my Growth Mindset and not giving up. The Character Strength that I used was Perseverance because I keep going. Cross Country was fun but also hard because about two times I got a stitch. I liked it because me and Cleo ran together. As soon as me and Cleo came up to the grass we heard everybody shouting "Go Evie and Cleo!" Everyone was so encouraging. As soon as I passed the end my throat was cracking. I ran up and grabbed my water bottle. "Good job" my mum said to me. She also gave me a big hug and then me and my friends made a city out of sand.

Chris: I did well in Cross County. I think I did well on my goals. I kept on going. I tried my hardest.

Will: I used Perseverance, Bravery, Zest, Growth Mindset, and a bit of Prudence and Humility. I came about 21st, 20th, 19th, 18th, or 17th. We went around the rock (Jeffery/Bob/Spiny Norman) then through the dunes and on to the grass and back through the grass and onto the sand, back up the dunes and onto the grass then back through the grass and onto the sand and finish where we started.

Pippa: I did achieve my goal by pacing myself so I wouldn't get tired 😴 and I am so proud of myself for not racing against anyone but myself I used Perseverance and Zest.

Anastasiya: Cross Country was great but hard. I really enjoyed it, especially the part were I helped Autahi. I think I have achieved my goals and I am looking forward to the next Cross Country.

Tessellation Art

This week we have enjoyed exploring concepts of geometry and measurement through meaningful and authentic tasks. We made tessellation art this week. We were inspired by the work of Escher. 

Tessellation is a pattern or shape that fits together perfectly with no overlaps or gaps. 

By Joni

By Octavia 

This artwork was very challenging and we had to use Growth Mindset to persevere. We also had to remain positive.