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:

Positive Relationships and Positive Purpose

 This week we went to Autahi to help develop and foster our positive relationships with some buddies.  We each had a buddy, we listened to them reading, helped them to post something they were proud of on seesaw and helped them practise their rocket words.  We thought back about our own time in Autahi and how we enjoyed it when "the big kids" came to work with us.  We also talked a bit about what it was like being a year 1 and learning to do pretty much everything at school for the first time.  We needed to be patient, encouraging and helpful.

Being able to help others can give us a sense of positive purpose.  Being leaders of our school and tuakana to our smaller friends is another way to have a greater purpose.   Positive purpose and relationships are two parts of the flourish model of Positive Education.  These elements contribute to our overall sense of wellbeing.   

Watch this space for more connections with Autahi and Tautoru.

What things in your life give you a sense of purpose? Or help you to foster meaningful relationships? 

Akau Tangi

It was great to get back to Akau Tangi for a day of sports. We used a Growth Mindset by trying new things and getting stuck in. Trying new sports is beneficial for our bodies and minds! When you learn new things, your brain grows. When you process a positive experience it enhances Positive Emotions too!

Thank you to Lext for putting this movie trailer together: 

Strengths

Research shows that character strengths can help children succeed at school and in life. Strengths are the positive qualities individuals have, as reflected in their thoughts, feelings, and actions. They promote the well-being of themselves and others. 

Have a watch of our latest little vignette - this time an introduction to Character Strengths 

Positive Emotions - Quick Writes

We have been using Positive Emotions to guide our Quick Writes recently. The idea of a Quick Write is to get ideas flowing while also thinking of spelling, punctuation and handwriting. 
 
We are focusing on Positive Emotions, the students are asked to recall a moment in time when they felt this emotion, what it felt like and what the meaning of the emotion is. This is a form on 'Savouring' as well as developing vocabulary around emotions (there is more than happy, sad and hungry!!).

Savouring is an idea linked to Fredickson's Broaden and Build theory,The first component (i.e., the broaden hypothesis) is that positive emotions broaden attention. The second component (i.e., the build hypothesis) is that broadened attention leads to increased engagement. Essentially, if we broaden our attention to positive emotions we will feel them more.

If you're interested, there is more to read about Savouring and Positive Emotions here

'Joy is like a cross between excitement and happiness. I felt joy when I was at Laserforce for my birthday party. Joy feels like you want to sing a rock song and do cart wheels in front of the whole world, and if you graze yourself you just want to get up then smack yourself and keep on singing! ' - Finn H

Positive Emotions at Swimming

The Arts Celebration 2021 - Whetukairangi Gallery

On Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, we opened up the school as an Art Gallery. It was wonderful to share our Art with our whānau. 

Maggie: I liked how Autahi used a toy that was special to them. They also did a thing where you could make a face out of some of their play stuff. I liked how Tautoru used music. 

Fabian: I really liked the art from Matariki because it had a really good carving of the north island of New Zealand and I liked that they had little clay characters and they are gonna make a little stop motion movie. I liked the art from the little kids because they did photos of they themselves and made a background.

Sabine: My favourite piece of art in autahi was the ones where they took photos of themselves with their favourite toys and then made them into collages. They made it look a whole lot more abstract with what they put on their art. My favourite piece in tautoru was their music and beats I thought it was really cool the way they made the beat and rhythm and different sounds and their method of keeping the beat and time and when to actually play their instruments. My favourite piece of art in Matariki was the floating inspiration books they were really interesting and abstract the way they put them up. I also liked the spinning tops I thought the illusion was really cool.

Sophie: I liked the way Autahi did lots of different ideas of one style of art and my favourite style of art was the one were you could touch it and play around with it. I liked it so much because it was different to the normal idea of art which is to hang it up or do something like that and then you can’t touch it. I liked the way Tautoru also did one style of art in different ways, I also liked how they learnt about music and how to read their own little sheet of it. My favourite part about Tautoru’s art was watching them put all that work into learning about music because it was really cool watching them making music.

Luca S: When I walked into Matariki, I was overwhelmed with amazing art, it was so cool to see the finished product of all their art, i had seen a tiny bit of their art in the process but it was still so cool seeing the finished products. I am very proud of my art that I did this year and I have put in a lot of work, same as lots of other people, my stop-motion is one of the things I am most proud of because it started off as and idea, now it is a meaningful short clip.

This is our Matariki Māhutonga movie with some of our poems and some of our stop motion.

Mae S: In tautoru, I liked the greeting art. It was very tidy and colourful, and I liked the way they included Maori things in their art celebration. The tree that was next to them I thought was cool- with all the fairy lights and such. Overall their art celebration was very nice. I think Tautoru did an amazing job and worked VERY hard on it! I think that they did lots of hard mahi!

Addison: I loved how Autahi put play and art together and I thought that their art was pretty abstract. I loved how Tautoru made art of their own faces and the things that they loved and I think that was pretty creative.

Will: Visiting the Autahi and Tautoru art was actually really cool. It was very different to our art, and it was quite interesting too. Autahi’s art was about self portraits and faces. They made faces out of toys and lego, took pictures of themselves with their special toys, and sketched the photos. They all drew self portraits, and got their friends to do them as well. There was also a half and half game, where they would fold the paper over and do one side of the face each. They also did pop art collages in the corridor as well. The art in Tautoru was about the students introducing themselves. They took selfies (not like you would take a selfie though) and printed them out in a black and white filter. That way they could colour it in and it would be realistic and colourful. They also made art about what they enjoyed doing, what they liked, and some things about themselves. There was also a section with pop art including the words “Ko ***student’s name*** Au”, in messed around and jumbled up letters. They also made a lot of music and beat, to perform together in a group.

Nicolas: I enjoyed it, Autahi blew my mind! And Tautoru too! How are they doing this?! I really enjoyed going to look at the senior art too!

Sam M: This term I enjoyed the Art Celebration. It was fun to learn about the process and meaning of art. It was fun learning how to control paint. Before I didn't really know how to paint and I would rush and complete it in a day. I believe I have improved my skill of painting. I liked doing the Marc Chagall painting the most. I was really happy with the shading and look of my painting but I still can improve. During the Art Celebration I really liked working with my friends. I enjoyed making wire characters and objects and finding funny ways to arrange them then we made a stop motion movie with them. It was great seeing it projected in Māhutonga.

Whānau Festival 2021

Something exciting and brand new for us at Worser Bay School... The Whānau Festival! What a great way to celebrate our student's talents. 

Our Performance Arts group at the festival

In Matariki Māhutonga, our Inquiry has focused on the Māori values of Kaitiakitanga, Whanaungatanga and Manaakitanga (and how we can uplift the Mana of others). Students joined either the Visual Arts or Performing Arts group to showcase and celebrate this learning. 

The Visual Arts Group imagined what the outdoor space could look like. They designed bunting, flags and banners. 

These students are developing skills in sewing and creating with fabric. 

 

Here are our performances: 

The Whānau Festival has been a great way for us to connect with each other and improve our well-being. The Flourish Model is something we want for our students, our staff and our community: good health, frequent positive emotions, supportive relationships, a sense of purpose and meaning, the accomplishment of worthwhile goals, and moments of complete immersion and absorption—a life where a person uses their Character Strengths in ways that support the self and others, and that has flourishing at the heart.

Miramar Library Visits

We will be walking to Miramar Library every 3 weeks. 

This is us at the library on Tuesday. It was great to choose books that we want to read. We had a lovely afternoon, walking and some calm... building on our Positive Emotions and Positive Health as well as reading for enjoyment!

Netball: Year 6 V Teachers

Today we practised our Positive Health by playing a Netball game. In true tradition, Year Six V THE TEACHERS! It was also a great way to enhance our Positive Emotions too!