Letters of Gratitude to Grandparents.

To conclude our Inquiry we are writing letters of gratitude to our Grandparents. Interviewing the older generation has led to a deeper understanding of family and where we come from and has made us really appreciate the older m,emebers of the family. The paintings are a great sign of appreciation and love and as such will be gifted to the subject. What a great Christmas or birthday present! Here are a couple of the letters.

Floorball Tournament!

We enetered 3 teams in the Eastern Zone Floorball Tournamernt on Wednesday, the Wildcats, the Wolves and the Wizards. It was great fun, pretty social and a good way to meet kids from other schools. We were all impressed by the great attitudes which kids brought to the games, competitive but with the emphasis on having fun. Healthy competition!

This is a photo of the teams getting ready for action. The games were great to watch; Zen scoring long range goals at will, Violet on fire in front of goal, Leo toying with opositions and Fabian displaying silky skills, to mention only a few of our sporting heroes. All teams really played as a TEAM. Impressive! On the day one team was unbeaten, one had only one loss and the other won half their games. They were all pleased with their results (even though nobody was counting). Many of the parfticipants are now wanting to play Floorball next term. Way to go Teams!

What Makes Me, Me? Arts Celebration.

We did it! It all came together, the classrooms transformed into gallery spaces. We attempted to express our ideas about identity, what defines us and to celebrate and honour our ancestors, particularly our grandparents. There was a great buzz on Tuesday and Wednesday night and many people commented about the quality of the work. We can be proud of the effort we put into it!

And thanks to the people who left their thoughts behind on the window about their own identity.

We asked some people what they thought about the work. "I liked the Basquait inspired works. I'd hang a couple of thise at home": Jim. "That comic reminds me of Jerry Seinfeld":Simon "I feel honoured to be painted by my grandson": Dave "My favourite was the brass band, that tune was stuck in my head all night": Pirimi "

Rugby Women's World Cup

 

The Women's Rugby World Cup

Nathan came to visit this week and he brought the Women's Rugby World Cup.  It was pretty cool.  We all got a chance to hold it if we wanted to, but we had to wear a white glove because only members of the winning teams are allowed to touch it with their bare hands.  

Some of the kids shared what they learned:

The NZ team won the cup 6 times and the USA won the first one but not since then.

We learned that the cup was nicknamed "Nancy," after Nancy Wake, a NZ spy in WWII.

The Rugby Women's World Cup has happened 9 times and NZ has won 6 of those times. 

The last world cup held a world record of the most people watching a women's sporting event ever with around 44,000 people. 

"Getting to be able to hold the cup was epic." --Amelia

"Finding out that NZ won the cup was cool because my mum didn't even tell me." --Tui

"I think it was a pretty cool experience that we got to hold it." --Violet

"We were very lucky and it was a good opportunity."--Nikita 

Thanks very much to Nathan for an awesome opportunity and for helping to lift women's sports! 

Visualising Patterns in numbers

 

This week in Maths we have been exploring how mathematicians often work in groups to discuss and problem solve.  They actually need to build their skills to be able to do this and so do we.  So we got practising, working in groups where each member of the group had a specific role--recorder, materials keeper, facilitator and reporter.  This helped us to all be accountable and have something very specific to contribute to the group's functioning.  

Our first task was to discuss, capturing everyone's ideas, what things we do and do not like others to do or say when working in a group, in particular when working on maths.  Then we collated everyone's ideas and created our own agreed ways of working so that we can be the best mathematicians we can be. 

Once we had our agreed ways of working and understanding of the things we find helpful when working in a group, we got down to some maths where we were visualising and identifying patterns inside numbers. Jo Boaler, one of the authors of Mindset in Mathematics, says "What is enchanting about numbers is that they are all made up of different arrangements, have different factors, can be seen differently, and have their own intricate system to be explored." 

So we explored numbers through visual representations and began to see emerging patterns.  We noticed, among other things that 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28 and 32 all have clusters of 4 inside them! We noticed that numbers like 7, 11, 13, 17, and 19 don't have any clusters of numbers in them! 

Stay tuned for more patterns emerging!

The Paintings are Emerging

We are often in the Flow when working on art works. We can relax, let our imaginations go and see our own beautiful creations shaping up in front of our very eyes. Because we don't want to give too much away, here is a taster of some of the work in development.

Using Rākau at Kapa Haka

Rākau We have been practicing rākau in Kapa Haka so we can learn songs with rākau in them. The song we're learning is called Kā Pioioi. It's a beautiful song with a kind of Pasifika Rhythm and tune. We will be learning more songs with them.

Amelia and Lockie Part of the Kapa Haka leadership team