Preparing for the Pou! Whetūkairangi Pā.

A project which we began in term 1 is coming to fruition. You know how good things take time? Well, we started dreaming about this around ten years ago. Many students who have been through the school over this time have considered ideas of how we honour this special place, the first Pā site in Te Whanganui a Tara, Whetūkairangi Pā. Students from throughout the school worked with our Creative in School, Artist Kimi Moana Whiting to develop ideas. Almost all students created a silhouette of a creature, either to signify the domain of Tangaroa, the domain of Tane Mahuta or the domain of Rangi and Tane te Wananga. The idea is that we show how this place has always been a place to connect the sea to the land to the sky.

These are just some of the motifs. In more recent times we have taken those silhouettes and developed them into tessellating patterns. And, now Kate Te Ao, one of our wonderful teaching assistants and an artist in her own right, has taken those images and is organising them, ready for application to our pou.

This is one of Kate's many options which kids have been giving her feedback on this week. And finally we have begun digging holes for the foundations to place the pou, setting piles and pouring concrete to ensure they don't go anywhere.

Our Creatives in Schools project is coming to an end and it's very exciting times. Watch this space!

Do Kids at Worser Bay Want a Marine Reserve?

We have been designing surveys to see what level of support there is amongst students for a voluntary marine reserve at Worser Bay. There has been some great energy in this learning as a result of our kids having learned so much about what is happening in our local marine environment, including some excellent knowledge about various species, in the intertidal zone. Most recently we have found out about plankton species. After conducting some research we have realised that there is no doubt that marine reserves are effective for supporting restoration of marine environments.

Please fill in the survey attached to this weeks newsletter so that we can evaluate support for this cause. We are preparing to share our learning at the Worser bay Boat Club open day on the tenth of December. Please join us to find out more about the proposed Blue Belt.

Very Dramatic!

 In preparation for our Joke night, we've been writing scripts, stand up comedy and jokes.  In our scripts we've been learning about setting a scene, choosing a point of concentration, and developing characters.  

We've also been playing drama games and having a go at performing for our class before we take the stage for our families. 

Writing and fine tuning our scripts

Practising on our own and for the teachers and getting some feedback

Having a go on a "stage" in front of the class

It takes a lot of zest, bravery and creativity to come up with some original ideas and then act it out in front of a group of people.  We're certainly honing in on these character strengths and working towards a great performance at our senior joke's night!

Moanamana: Plankton Nets, Monitoring temperature and Salinity.

We look as if we are just sitting enjoying the view. But, actually we are monitoring the marine life in our local marine environment. We dragged a plankton net from the wharf, up and down about 5 times and then released the catch into a jar. From there we took small smaples and placed then on petrie dishes for viewing.

We used this identifiaction chart to monitor what we found. So many weird and wonderful creatures!

Well it was clearer on the day. Maybe you had to be there? We also dropped an underwater camera and have about an hour of footage which we aim to look at tomorrow.

Tuakana Teina--working across the school

This week we spent some time working across the school in our whanau groups.  This is a wonderful opportunity to get to work with other teachers and with kids of all ages across the school.  It gives us a chance to be leaders and big buddies and to work in different spaces.

This time we were all learning about the story of Ngake and Whataitai--the taniwha of Wellington harbour and how relevant they are to our location here at Worser Bay.  We learned a different version of the story that looks at the taniwha and each of their strengths.  Each group explored these ideas through different ways.  Some did collaborative art, team building exercises, and viewing the locations in the harbour that relate to the story from our local lookout.  

Positive Health and Emotions: Laughter

We have been learning about the positive health and wellbeing benefits of laughter.  We spent some time this week watching a tedtalk and some videos all about the science behind laughing and its positive impacts.  Then we actually got down to the business of practising some laughing yoga.  We learned some new facts about laughter and how it impacts on our bodies and our minds.  

                                                        Here's some of what we learned: