How Dinosaurs Became Extinct - Depicting Facts Through Diagrams

Our Inquiry is called ‘Words and Pictures, Igniting the imagination’. 

This Inquiry links to our school-wide Writing and Inquiry focus, creating a Zine which we can share with the Worser Bay community and beyond! We are beginning to work on different form of Visual Literacy and are learning more about magazines in general to generate inspiration.

We have been learning how to depict facts and knowledge through diagrams. We looked at the theories of how the dinosaurs became extinct then made posters to depict the facts that we wanted to share. 

The Gardens are Going Off!

Thanks to the considerable efforts of students during the last week of 2021 our gardens are thriving. We weeded, moved compost and planted in the torrential rain and now we can see the fruits of our labour. It is great to see kids interacting with the plants, eating beans as they appear, finding new vegetables emerging and noting the insect life amongst the plants. We found a huge Wēta upon the beans yesterday! We are continuing to water and care for the plants too and the summer warmth is definitely a bonus. We are planning to do some cooking with the produce too. Watch this space!

Lunar New Year

Last week we found out more about the Lunar New Year with some help from some of our experts in the room.  The Lunar New Year is celebrated in many countries across Asia and is celebrated across the world. 

We learnt about the legend of the New Year. Each year is named after a different animal, based on an old story. The Jade Emperor called all the animals on earth, but only 12 came. He told the animals to have a race. The order they finished the race was the order he named the years in the Chinese calendar. Rat won the race, with the pig strolling in last.

We found out what our Chinese New Year sign is and the strengths that are linked to that animal. It is believed that a person's horoscope, personality, and love compatibility are closely associated with their Chinese zodiac sign, determined by their birth year. What is your shengxiao?

We created our own comic strips to retell the story.

By Lexi

By Willow

We found out about some other countries that celebrate the Lunar New Year. We also found out about New Year traditions from across the world. Like China, many countries do not celebrate New Year on January 1st. 

By Lisa and Ella

How do you celebrate the New Year?

What is Grit?

 We continue to have a big focus on Grit in Māhutonga Matariki. But what is Grit? A student explains

GRIT

What is grit? Grit is a strength, it's something you use in tough times.

Grit is something you use in sport, (like me) trying something that's challenging and learning new things.

But how do you get grit? Grit is made out of two ingredients: persistence and resilience. Once you ace these skills you are officially GRITTY.

Welcome Back to 2022

Welcome back to a new school year! We loved welcoming back our students last week after such a beautiful Wellington summer. We're excited about the learning ahead! We will be kicking off with an Inquiry ‘Words and Pictures, Igniting the imagination’, a study of comics and graphic novels. We are excited about connecting visual and written language and think that this will be really inspiring for our kids.

We have started to think about goal setting for the year. Last week, we chose a focus word for the year. This is a word that will guide us through the year ahead. This will sit on our shoulder and gently nudge us towards achieving our goals. The staff have also created a focus word for the year!

We know that setting goals helps us to stay motivated and feel success. We break these goals into small steps (kaizen steps). We have our "dream goals" then break these down into smaller steps. 

When goal setting, we use the "SMARTER" akronym. We think the exciting and rewarding part is REALLY important! 

Some goal setting questions for our students: 

What are your dreams? what are you passionate about? How will you grow a strength? What are your goals for Literacy and Maths? Other areas of the curriculum? What is something you need to work on? 

What are your goals linked to the flourish model?
Positive Relationships

Positive Purpose

Positive Emotions
Positive Accomplishment
Positive Health

Positive Engagement

The Flourish Model is at the centre of what we do at Worser Bay School

This term we have a focus on the Learner Attribute of being a goal setter. 

We have enjoyed spending time connecting and reconnecting with our friends. We spent time at the beach on Friday as part of Global Play Day. What a great way to develop and build Positive Relationships. 

Travelling Tale- Danger on the Coral Reef

"Danger on the Coral Reef" is a new #globalgoals inspired digital story created by 4 different classes from around the world. Students from the USA, New Zealand and Vietnam collaborated to create this story with a focus on the Sustainable Development Goal #14.

One of our learners attributes is "I am connected." We are aiming to connect globally so that we have a better understanding of the world around us: 

We used this story mountain to help: