Te Papa & City Gallery Trip (Māhutonga)

Māhutonga had a great day out in the big city this week. Matariki will follow on Tuesday.

At Te Papa we visited the Mana Whenua and Toi Art Exhibitions.

"I liked the whare, just to sit down and respect our history and ancestors." - Gina 

At the City Gallery, we saw exhibitions of Eva Rothschild and Semiconductor. Afterwards we made some Art with science, as Semiconductor do!

"We started off at the art gallery with a huge structure that you could walk through!" - Solly

Claire from City Gallery introducing us to Eva Rothschild's work.

"It will blow your mind when you see her sculptures. And guess what? The one at the end is an actual curtain! Who knows what is behind it…" Mae S & Sabine

Getting right in to the art of Semiconductor!

"Semiconductor is about sound waves shown in the art of vibrations. The sound waves are caused mostly from eruptions, earthquakes." - Leo

Making art pieces with magnets and UV light

This trip was a fantastic way to not only explore our Inquiry, but also get inspiration for our Arts Celebration, all in one hit. Ka mau te wehi!

Building a Whare

This week, we started our new Inquiry, Whāia ngā whetū (Follow the Stars). We were focused on being thinkers and used our imagination to imagine what our pā site might have looked like between the 12th and 13th Century. Building a whare was some of the play that we created to imagine what the past was like.

We also have been taking action for our Inquiry about social connection and community resilience, "Where we Dance." We decided to take action by helping around the school. Some of us ran workshops, some of us did jobs. One of the jobs was building a whare. This is part of Positive Purpose and doing things for others.

Celebrating our third places inquiry

Over the past few weeks Gabrielle's inquiry group have been making projects in groups to put out for the community.

Third places are places like your home away from home where you go when you want to relax and just be quiet.

Sticky places are like places you don't want to leave  you're stuck to them. Bumpy places are like where you bump into people and make new friends.

We want to thank Elinor because she has really helped us make our third places by contributing materials, money and helping out through the procedure.

We have many different things, from bird houses to fairy doors.

Over this past time we have learnt a lot such as tips to painting and how to measure the precise angle.We are putting these crafts around the neighbourhood and making them a thing that everyone can use including the public.

Overall I think that over this experience everyone has learnt something and we are all really proud of what we’ve achieved.

By Ben B

We had an afternoon tea today to share our learning and celebrate what we had made. Everyone was very grateful to Elinor for her support for their project and spoke really confidently about their creations for the third place that they had identified. Elinor's supervisor from Victoria University also came into be part of our celebration and was impressed with the community support for the students' work.

Thanks to Zach for putting this movie together showing some of the installations that are already in the community.

Where we Dance! Interpreting the Statistics.

Where we Dance! Interpreting the Statistics.

This was really interesting to start our Inquiry because we found out a lot of information from a simple survey.  The key findings after we analysed the data were:

• Most kids feel pretty safe in their neighbourhood our community
• The majority of kids know their neighbours, at least one or two houses
• Many kids are driven around the neighbourhood
• Most would prefer to walk, scooter or bike

The main purpose of the survey was to find out what 3rd places are used by kids.  It was interesting to note that the beach and parks are popular but that many kids said they don't have any other 3rd places at all.

We are looking at trying to develop connection points in the community; places for kids to meet informally (bumpy places), places they might want to stay in and return to (sticky places).  We think that children should be encouraged to play together and find each other in these places.  The more they do this, the safer the neighbourhood!

What ideas do you have? Please leave a comment.

Where we Dance: Community Groups

Where we Dance!

Our focus Learner Attribute this term is 'I am Connected' so we have been thinking about the places outside of home and work where we meet and play.  We are interested in the idea that some people belong to different groups within the community.  We have asked the question, who are those groups and where do those groups meet?

This brainstorm captures some of our first ideas.

These kids belong to Miramar Rangers, one of the really popular groups for our students.  Can you see any familiar faces?
We have begun mapping these groups so that we can better understand who we are connected to.

Where we Dance: Third Places

Elinor came to talk to us about her project. This was the beginning of our own Inquiry entitled, "Where We Dance." This was the hook to get us thinking and asking questions...

Elinor is interested in urban design. Urban design is the planning of towns and cities. It is not the architecture of buildings, but the spaces around them and how to organise things like transport and housing.

Some questions that urban designers ask would be: 

How do people travel around? 

Is it by car or bus or walking?
How does where people live and where they go to work or do other activities shape their choice of transport?
What transport choices are available?
How do the physical characteristics of a place shape how people use it?

Sustainability and environment are also important in urban design.

Social Cohesion

Social means society or the group of people that you live with. Cohesion means togetherness or connection, if you write a story then you want the different parts to work together to make a coherent story. Social cohesion means how much a group of people are willing to work together as a group or cooperate, to follow the same rules, share values and work towards the same goals.

Social capital is the resources that come out of people working together or social cohesion. In some societies social cohesion is so low that the people don’t have things that we take for granted. For example, places that are experiencing war, don’t have safety, roads, school...

Think about whether your class is socially cohesive and whether you use social capital. Being able to go to the beach is an example. This is an awesome resource that is looked after by our community, by doing beach clean ups and  planting there, you can use it as part of the school because you follow the rules down there. Rules include not going in the water, or running off or leaving it covered in rubbish.

Living in a society that has high levels of social cohesion and social capital means that you have a better quality of life. This leads to better health and well being and more options of what to do in life.

There are some people who say that if children are able to get around a city by themselves then it means that the city is well designed and inclusive for everyone who lives there, and it probably means that it is well designed in terms of environmental sustainability too. However, in New Zealand the amount of travel children do by themselves is decreasing and this means that there are more trips made by car, with parents driving their kids around. Elinor is interested in finding out about the things that might make children who live in suburbs more active - for example walking or biking to school more often.

Social Resilience

Social resilience is the ability for a social group to cope with adversity. An example of social resilience is after the Christchurch earthquake the Student Volunteer Army got together and helped the community. After the Kaikoura Earthquake the community at Takahanga Marae fed people who were affected by the earthquake. The Marae was better equipped to respond to the people who were affected by these disasters than the government was.

Cultural Sustainability

Cultural Sustainability means thinking about the cultures and traditions of the place that we live in. It means how much they are still used now and how they might be conserved or used more in the future. This might be linked with indigenous culture or of the beliefs and practices that have developed within a group. 

More than Human... 

"More than human" thinking is similar to cultural sustainability. It involves thinking about what has been here in the past and what could be here in the future. The emphasis is on plants, animals and ecosystems and how these things can all exist together in an urban environment. In Wellington we are lucky because the city is compact. It takes up a smallish space so we can get out into nature fairly easily. There are still plenty of things we could do to make life easier for other species to live in the city. Sometimes this can be a bit of a problem if roots or animal behaviour isn’t compatible with human life.

So how can we go about building these things, what are the foundations we need?

Inclusivity, equality, safety, democracy or shared decision making, having everyone - and everything!- represented in our society.

Third Place

One sociologist who has done some thinking about this talked about something that he had noticed and called it third place. Third places are... not your first place, which is home, or your second place which is work or school. They are ...These places are similar to ‘sticky places’ or ‘bumping places’ which are spaces that make people hang around or bump into each other. Sometimes urban designers add them in their designs, so that people living in or using the same area can have a chance to meet and maybe get to know each other. Sometimes they just happen. 

Third Places should be: 

• Inclusive
• Public
• Friendly or social
• Comfortable to hang out 
• New experiences
• Interesting or fun!
• Support independence

Worser Bay beach is a third place because you will probably see friends there or at least find some other kids to play with. 

Elinor told us about the project that she is working on and will be helping us with our Inquiry. Our students have been thinking about the spaces in our community. Here are questions that we have been considering.

How do you feel about third places now?

How do you use them?

What do you think is missing?

What do you think that other people would like or use?

How can we make them better?

What does better mean to us?

Discussion: What is "Home"?

As part of our Inquiry "Where we dance" we read some different stories to get us thinking about community. We listened to the story, Quaky Cat (this is a story from a cat's point of view about the  earthquake in Christchurch.) We had some great discussions and debate about what is the definition of home. We came up with some interesting ideas about what "home" means. 

During our discussion we put ourselves on a continuum. Some of us agreed with Henry who said you don’t need a house to feel at home (you just need to be safe). Some of us agreed with Caspian who said home should be a building (a shelter).

Caspian

A home is something that shelters you. It usually has somewhere you can sleep, somewhere where you can eat, play and cook. Alex’s idea is home is something that you like. If you are homeless you sleep in a blanket or cardboard box. Alex would say it is home for a homeless person. It is just putting a cardboard box and sleeping there waiting for some money and it doesn’t have shelter for you. It is like putting a chair in the middle of the road. You can’t call that your home.

Griffin 
A home is a place where you feel safe. Even though some people live on the streets they still call it a home. Some people were born on the streets and love living on the streets. They would still call anything a home, maybe a tent, a shelter, a bench or anything as long as it feels nice and comfortable. You might think it has to be a shelter but it doesn't, if it was then a house would be called a home.

Chris
home is not a quake or shiver

home is not a piece of life 

home is not to tear you apart 

home is not a monster. 

Home is not for you tear apart 

Home is here for YOU !

Jasmine and Stella

Home is a place were you feel safe and secure. Home is somewhere you can meet your family and live with your family. Home can be a place can be out side on a beach or in a park. Home is a a place that you will never forget till you die, even if you go round carrying a blanket and you sleep in the same place. It is still a home.

Alex

The Definition Of A Home Is: 

A warm/cozy place that you feel safe in. 

A place where you can make/ have memories. 

Where you can rest and stay sheltered from bad weather or bad people. 

A home is a place that makes you happy in the heart and soul. 

A place where you can eat, sleep and proses your pride positions. 

All around a place where you can live. 

Not A Home: 

Cold ,dark and empty place 

A bus stop 

A place where your not happy

Thomas
What is a definition of a home? where your family come together. When you feel safe and have an eco-friendly environment. it’s a place where you can rest and just be yourself and calms you down after a hard day at work. A home can be any were but you need to feel safe. A house is just a building but a home is safe happy and cheerful a home is were you belong.

Flynn
A home is a place where you live which doesn't have to be a building like you could live on the street but if you keep coming back it is sort of a home or it could be a building. Some people say a home is wherever you feel safe but I can feel safe in a hug but that isn't my home because it isn't where I live.

Hunter T

A home is a place where you are safe, 

A home is a place where you can rest and relax, 

A home is a place where your family can come together, 

A home is a place where you can play games and be silly. 

I like home because I can invite friends over, 

I like home because I can pick a clover, 

I like home because I can be with my Dog, 

I like home because I usually don't see a hedgehog. 

Home is what I call nice because I see dead mice. 

Home is what I call cheerful because 

Everyone has a home in their life.

Where we dance

We have started a new Inquiry "Where we dance". We are looking at our neighbourhoods - who is in them, what is in them, where are our special happy places. We have done some quick writes with initial ideas, and some poetry and songwriting about these places. We hope to make our neighbourhoods places where people connect more often.

Here's some of our writing:

What is in our local area In our environment three are living things like humans, animals and plants. One of my favourite of places in our local area is the beach because it's so beautiful. Our local area is special because it has great views and secret paths that are filled with trees, flowers and other plants. Our peninsula is called Miramar peninsula it was originally was behind a big hill so they had to cut a whole through it to make an entrance to Miramar. That's why Miramar is surrounded by hills it has to beaches that lap around Wellington. Miramar is lovely in the summertime it's so nice we got to the beach go rock pooling their and we have a paddle board that we go out in sea deep on and look at the beautiful sea life and my absolute favourite thing in Miramar peninsula is eating ice creams at schorchorama cafe in Scorching Bay.

By Yasmin



What is in my neighbourhood? Hello my name is Eleanor and I go to Worser Bay School. By the way if you live in Wellington (oh and I live in Wellington) you need to go to Worser Bay School! In my neighbourhood there are lots of kids from school playing about. there are lots of lovely people in my neighbourhood. They're so kind and loving! I smell the fresh NZ air and NZ native birds chirping 24/7. The water evaporates under my feet as I slowly walk to my friends house that is right next to mine. Katherine is one of my closest friends and she is kind and the best Gymnast I ever know! Kids running home with ice creams in there hand and their smile is as big as their face! The sun strong and the wind is calm. Water everywhere, people screaming and laughing. THAT IS JUST THE BEGINNING!!!!!!!



In Townsend Rd you can see lots of things like cats, dogs,t rees and lots of tree houses but the most best part about it is that everyone is friendly. (Except this one lady that's always raging angry). In our neighbourhood we get lots of tuis, fantails, bell birds and magpies, mainly because we have a massive bird feeder.

By Cameron



Quick write about worser bay and Miramar

What is in our local area? 

Our local area is worser bay and Miramar. Our area is really nice and free. One of the things in worser bay or Miramar is living near the beach because in the summer all you have to do is pack some stuff check with your parents maybe phone up your friends to find out if they are around a go down to the beach. On the beach there is also the worser bay boating club. I like to walk up to the prison on the top of the hill and look at this old building. When you come down from the prison there is this garden that is almost impossible to see because it is inside the bush. When you know you come across the garden is when you see a beautiful well and a little path leading into a clearing with butterflies. It is so magical. 

What makes our place special? 

Our place is special because we are not like other places because most other places are strict about kids walking alone and just popping to the play ground. Our place let’s kids walk alone and i think everybody is kinder than other country’s because if you saw a child that looked lost then they would come up to them and help them. I like the outer place because we are lucky to have the most amazing bush,hills and animals. 

Where do you hang out? 

I like to hang out down at the beach. I like playing at the beach with my friends. The secret garden is my favourite place. I like walking and hanging out in the bush because it is so magical almost as magical as the secret garden. How do you feel about these areas? I love these areas because they use a lot of nature and is inspired by the world around them. I feel like this area is magical and free.

By Nell



Worser bay, Worser bay. It’s where the seagulls squawk and wail. The waves crash on the beach and where dogs chase their tails. The school is always loud and you can hear it from the beach it’s a rowdy place on the outside but take a look in the rock pools and you will change your mind forever.

By Peter