Put on your dancing shoes!

We were very lucky to welcome Jordana from the Royal New Zealand Ballet to support our learning as we prepare for our Arts Celebration in Week 9. Jordana's lesson was inspired by RNZB's show 'The Bomb - Te Pohū' (based on the book with the same title, and written by Sacha Cotter), with Jordana sharing her expertise and helping us develop our movement and understanding of dance. A huge ngā mihi to Jordana for giving up her time to work with us and share her knowledge.

Learning Celebrations

 Earlier this week we had our annual celebration of learning where our amazing learners curate some of the learning that they are most proud of to share with their whanau. The format asked three questions of the learners.

What piece of work are you proud of?
What learning does this piece show? 
What are your next steps?

We were very proud of the way that the learners in Māhutonga Matariki could talk about what they had achieved and the learning that sits behind it. 

Year 6 Open Day visit to EBIS

On Wednesday, our Year 6 students had the opportunity to spend a day at Evans Bay Intermediate (EBIS), giving them a taste of what life might be like when they move on to intermediate school. Throughout the day, the kids had the chance to try their hand at a range of specialist subjects and experience some of the opportunities available at intermediate. They got creative in Art with Mrs Booleris, blew up stuff in Science with Mr Chalk, explored Digital Technologies using TinkerCad with Mr Hart and Mr McNamee, enjoyed PE with Mr Ashcroft and Mr Barrett, took some time to focus and reset during Mindfulness with Matua Rob, and even got into the kitchen for some Cooking with Miss B! One of the highlights was being able to meet some of the teachers and get a feel for the different learning environments. It was also lovely for our students to reconnect with friends from Worser Bay School, as well as kids they know from sports teams and extracurricular activities. It was great to see how many ex-Worser Bay kids were chosen to guide and support the Year 6 students, who can you spot in these photos?

There was plenty of time for fun and socialising too. At lunchtime, students enjoyed a sausage sizzle (cooked by Principal Howard Young himself, and had the chance to play in the playground with their friends before heading back into their activities. It was a busy, fun-filled day, and our kids embraced every opportunity to have a go, learn something new and enjoy themselves - in true Worser Bay spirit. They came back full of enthusiasm, and it was fantastic to see them making the most of this opportunity to experience a little taste of intermediate life!

A persuasive argument

 This Term the year 4 cohort have been exploring writing to persuade. This is made up of several components including making a statement about their position, whether they are for or against an idea. Exploring reasons that support their opinion and finally a conclusion that ties all of their points together.

We apologise in advance for any persuasive arguments that stem from this learning, including negotiations about bed times or tidying up. 

Check out some examples of our writing about the best ice-cream flavours.

The novel writing adventure has begun!

This term, our Year 5/6 studentshave taken on an exciting and ambitious challenge ... writing their own novels! Before putting pen to paper, we've been focusing on one of the most important parts of the writing process: planning. Our students have discovered that authors spend a great deal of time developing ideas before they begin writing. Just have a look at J.K.Rowling's drafts!

Over the past two weeks, we've been working through the writing process together by generating ideas, planning, and drafting. Eventually, we will be editing, and then publishing. So far, our focus has been on building strong foundations for our stories. One of the exciting parts has been seeing the variety of stories taking shape, with the kids choosing a wide range of genres and formats including graphic novels, choose-your-own adventure stories, diary-style narratives, action adventures, mysteries, fantasy tales, and realistic fiction. We have explored different character archetypes and discussed why certain characters appear throughout story's. We've studied mentor texts to identify the techniques real authors use to hook readers, create suspense, and build memorable settings. Everyone has planned their story using a story mountain to map out the key events and has designed detailed maps of their fictional worlds to help bring their settings to life.

These activities have encouraged the kids to think deeply about their characters, plots, and settings before beginning to write. The excitement around the classroom has been fantastic, with students eagerly sharing ideas duirng our 'Writer's Circle' and making thoughtful decisions about how their stories will unfold. Now comes the exciting part.. everyone is busy writing Chapter One! It's encouraging to see such creativity and perseverance as students begin bringing their stories to life. We know there will be plenty of revising and refining along the way, just like real authors do, and we can't wait to celebrate the finished novels later in the term. Watch this space as our young authors continue their incredible writing journey!

Exploring the performing arts...

 In Māhutonga Matariki we have been exploring some of the aspects of the performing arts in the build up to our annual Arts Celebration.

This week we explored how we use our bodies to create a world for our audience. With nothing on the stage we can use our movements and body to show rather than tell the audience what is going on.

Check out these performers and see if you can have a guess at what they might be trying to show us

Roaaar! The creative process has begun...

Can you tell what we are drawing? Watch this space for our finished artworks...