Another week is done and dusted and we’ve had our first full five dayer. It’s been packed with fun learning and loads of focused mahi/work.
Importantly, our students went about their goal setting meetings and it's been wonderful to see them reflecting on their strengths and weaknesses and building their growth mindset in relation to their school life and beyond. Thank you for your support in making these so successful.
In Inquiry this week, we focused in on the concept of environment: What it is? How humans have impacted on it? How it is intertwined with Te Ao Māori? Here are some of the students working in teams to understand what the world's various Biomes are and their key features.
Additionally to this, we have been unpacking the concept of Manaakitanga. What it so unds like. What it feels like. What it looks like. We are in the process of creating a graffiti wall with words that reflect its meaning using a graffiti style of font. Here are a few samples of their work.
He aroha whakatō, he aroha puta mai.
If kindness is sown then kindness you shall receive.
In our Literacy rotation we’ve been focusing on various forms of poetry and how they can express ideas in an artistic way. Here are a few examples:
In Maths, we’ve continued to concentrate our learning on place value concepts and integrating this to learning around length of a meter and a square meter. This will remain a focus for us in the coming weeks as we use this knowledge to carry out scientific observations.
We are looking forward to what next week holds, including our Te Aro Trip!
We have continued to pump up visual literacy. We know that our students enjoy to present their learning in different ways. Visual literacy has been a way to engage and motivate many of our students to communicate their ideas in creatively. This week, we made a Christmas Zine. It was wonderful to see the quality of the work produced.
Ethan Q: On Wednesday the 7th of December we made a Christmas Zine in one day and it had 11 pages. First we all started on doing some doodles, word search and comics so it took us about to morning tea to get about half way done. It was very fun. After morning tea we kept on going until we finished and we all moved onto do different things. We made a word search for a song, an odd one out and many more things and stapled it together and there were awards for teamwork, creativity and encouragement and we got the award for teamwork. We managed to finish it at the end of the day. It was very fun and we named it 'Crazy Christmas.' Our group were Ethan.Q, Tui, Marcia, Samuel, Scarlett and Alice.
Our Visual Inquiry learning/ reading has inspired us to create our own zines.
This is us planning what we will include.
We have stumbled across a great article in the New York Times, By Pamela Paul and Maria Russo, "How to Raise a Reader." This article has tips for parents about how to raise a reader at every age and stage.
Some key points:
Read throughout the day
When reading with kids, introduce your own preferences
Respect the child's preferences
Choose a range of books/ texts
Don't make reading work, reading is fun!
Format does not matter- comics can help students become avid readers
A book about a computer game is still reading
Some kids prefer non-fiction
We are all very excited about our ongoing Visual Literacy Inquiry. We have been reading a range of texts that have visual images or diagrams.
We’ve been working on our reading comprehension skills, using some exciting comic and graphic novels stories. We are being reading detectives and learning to read both the words and the pictures to gather information. We are making predictions about what characters will do next, and inferring the reasons for their actions from the information we have. We are practising saying why we think these things by referring to the text for evidence.
Last week, our Social Positive Purpose Group worked collaboratively with the Year 3 students to create some poetry. The aim was to teach the juniors about the poetic devices that the seniors have been using in their poetry. It was great to collaborate and learn from each other!
When I feel Excited By Nikita and Sitara
When I feel excited
I bounce off the walls
When I feel excited
I explode excitement
When I feel sad
I burst into tears
When I feel sad
I read a book
When I feel sad
I slam the door
When I feel nervous
I freeze into a ball
When I feel nervous
I shiver with scaredness
When I feel hangry
I screamed angrily
When I feel loved
I get happy and my heart bursts
Childhood Tracks by Soma and Nina
Hearing tui waking me up in the morning
Hearing the teacher talking to my class
Hearing kids and me playing at playtime
Eating toast in the morning
Eating orange for lunch at school
Eating pizza for lunch
Drinking water in the afternoon
Drinking orange juice
Drinking fizzy drinks at home
Smelling pizzas cooking in the oven at lunch
Anger by Oscar & Charlie
Anger
It flies through our head
like a bullet
Causing happiness to scramble away
Making everyone grumpy
Childhood Tracks by Ethan Gigi and Oli
Smelling delicious flowers
Smelling pollen in the flowers
Hearing tui sing loudly
Hearing beautiful getting pollinated by bees
Eating delicious KFC
Eating the burning pizza
Feeling water on your face
Feeling the fresh breeze on my face
Love By Charlotte and Cara
Love is form of relationship
Flying through the air
as its formed
Love is a red hot heart
Burning through The soul
Childhood tracks- Sam and Mastani
Hearing my Dad screaming
Hearing my little brother throwing dishes on the ground
For our annual Art Celebration, Māhutonga Matariki will be showcasing poetry, short plays and artwork. Growing up, using the metaphor of the Hero's Journey from childhood to adulthood, will feed into the celebration.
We have been busy preparing poetry. We looked at the poem, Down the Back of the Chair by Margaret Mahy. Her poem inspired us to use poetic language to create our own poems in the same style.
Tangled in David's Hair by Nye
Not a single penny, do we have, our wallets are bare.
The only place, we have not chased,
Is uncle David’s beard or hair.
We grabbed his scalp and held him down,
Careful not to lose underwear,
We put our hands in,
and saw somethings,
which of course made us stare.
A dancing bus, a man named Rufus,
Tangled in David’s hair.
Some long lost toast, a bar of soap,
Tangled in David’s hair.
Something big, a pile of figs,
Tangled in David’s hair.
A kite, a knight, a terrific fight,
Tangled in David’s hair.
Year old milk, a bundle of silk,
Tangled in David’s hair.
A velvet chair, music to blare,
Tangled in David’s hair.
A skunk, a monk, a pan that goes CLUNK!
Tangled in David’s hair.
An empty chest,
a bug that needs rest,
Tangled in David’s hair.
A blue canary, a banana shaped tree,
Tangled in David’s hair.
A slope, a rope, the pope, a joke,
Tangled in David’s hair.
A scare, a flare, an explosive hare,
Tangled in david’s hair. A big bowl of rice,
“That's extremely nice!”,
Tangled in David’s hair.
And finally after hours of work,
(And a battle with a dangerous bear, a mysterious box,
filled with chicken-pox, and a life that is full of despair)
we found a way, to get some pay,
tangled in David’s hair,
a large pickaxe, to chop and hack,
tangled in David’s hair,
we can get precious stones,
to make our own, and give them for a share,
of their groups cash.
“Hurrah! “We say, as now we can gain enough food to feed our Aunty Elaine!
Down the back of the chair! By Olive
Down the back of the chair.
A cat, a mat, a hairy rat,
Down the back of the chair.
A smash, a crash, a bowl of mash,
Down the back of the chair.
A fish, a wish, a diamond dish,
Down the back of the chair.
A potato, a tomato, a flock of flamingos,
Down the back of the chair.
A pea, a flea, a box of trees,
Down the back of the chair.
A pool, a mule, a wooden stool,
Down the back of the chair!
DOWN THE BACK OF THE CHAIR! by Kura
He stuck his hand further down the back of the chair.
Cats, Rats, Bats flew out,
A mythical magical mat jumped out,
A sack of clowns, and a cottage lounge,
Were down the back of the chair.
There were puzzled wizards, dancing knitters,
A bee having tea,
Even Mum and her dressing gown,
Were down the back of the chair.
A clock, The Wellington block?
And the crazy computer birds,
Were down the back of the chair.
Yes, down the back of the chair.
Down the back of the Chair by Archie and Lakham
A pin, a lottery win, a mouse thats thin,
A snake, a cake, a big old rake
A pig, a twig, a big fig,
A mat, a cat, a rat thats fat,
A piggy bank, an army tank,
Down the back of the chair.
A bill, a Will and a man called Phill
A TV, a fairy taking it easy,
A chair, a bear and some underwear,
A ball, a wall, an Archie that is tall,
A dog, a frog, and a big fat log,
Down the back of the chair.
Down the back of the chair by Luc
The titanic and people in a panic,
An aeroplane, a flame,
A Lamborghini and a Ferrari,
A maserati and a bugatti chiron
Down the back of the chair
A fluffy hat that came from Russia
A uniform from Scott's College,
$1,000,000,000 bucks from the bank, Down the back of the chair
Today in Māhutonga Matariki we started our morning rotations. From Tuesday through Friday, each base group visits each of the four teachers in the morning to practice key literacy skills. Spelling with Nic, Typing with Jenny, Te Reo Māori with John and Handwriting/Phonics with Nik.
Today we had an introduction to phonics session. Some of us were very familiar with phonics. Some of us had no clue what it was!
We discussed what phonemes and graphemes are. We practiced listening & dictation, adding phoneme lines to words and segmenting/blending words with the 'robot.'
We are aiming for consistency in our phonics teaching and learning! As senior students, we want to be able to visit Autahi and Tautoru to help with their learning in phonics and reading. Embedding common phonics language across the school will help us towards achieving this goal.
Phonics in Autahi
Buddy reading in Autahi
We already help a lot with reading. Equipped with phonics in our toolkit we'll be even more effective.
To wrap up our year of Creativity in Writing, we put on an Evening of Poetry Performance and Music. We have written some amazing poems; some thought provoking, some emotional and some downright silly. Thank you to everyone who came to listen. Here are some of the poems that we pre-recorded:
Our rich and varied literacy programme is humming along. We want to be a community of readers, authors and critical thinkers. We are.
We are having some great conversations about reading comprehension. We know there are a range of strategies we can call upon before, during and after reading.
We have been working in small groups to unpack and practice using these strategies.
In their independent time, one group have been completing role cards that encourage deeper thinking around their personal reading.
Another group have been expanding their minds with wonderings about the strange and mysterious story The Watertower by Gary Crew. Our library has some fantastic, thought-provoking picture books. But, you know that already because John regularly shouts it from the rooftops!
Once a Panther by Victor Rodger, from the School Journal Story Library has been the subject of analysis by another group. The story of the Polynesian Panthers has students growing more curious about New Zealand's history and the lessons we might learn from it.
Our explanation writing muscle has been getting a work out explaining, among other things, the wonders of our Arts Celebration. Now we're aggressively sharpening up our pencils in preparation for persuasive writing - get ready to hear an argument or two!
Last week we joined two family groups at Carter Observatory. We watched the brilliant 360° dome film Matariki Dawn which helped us understand Matariki, when it comes in to view and what significance it has to Aotearoa. Very valuable stuff leading in to the next stage of our Inquiry, Whāia Ngā Whetū as well as our Matariki celebrations.
The film showcased three traditional Māori stories related to our solar system - The Story of Tawhirimatea, Rona and the Moon and The Great Waka of Tama Rereti. This was a fantastic link to our Literacy learning, where we have been reading and re-telling these and other Māori myths and legends.
After the film we were able to explore the Space Place Museum. Although the Tuesday night visit happened under a thick cloud cover, on Friday night we were blessed with clear skies and a look through the massive telescope at the moon. Kia ora Rona me Te Marama!
Perhaps the most exciting thing to come from this visit was our subsequent contact with Ohu Domes, the production company responsible for the Planetarium shows. Based a stones throw from our school, they were elated to hear the local school had enjoyed their project. They have since provided us with the 360° videos for the Māori stories (these are available to watch through your child's google account on the file Literacy / Inquiry Links Term 2, 2019). If you aren't able to make it to Space Place, though we still implore you to do so, you can at least now enjoy these videos from the comfort of your own home.
Ohu Domes are also developing an educational kit to accompany their films, and are interested in our thoughts about this! We look forward to another opportunity for community collaboration and connectedness. Tau kē!
We had a special visitor at school on Wednesday. Apirana Taylor is a storyteller, an artist, a musician and even a magician! He entertained us with stories and shared many of his instruments that he uses to help tell his stories.
On Tuesday night we had a Poem Night. We invited our families to come and watch our poetry performances. Everyone did their poems and had a fun night. Everyone ate their lovely dinner.
These students read their poems at assembly... A little taster for our Poetry Piñata Evening starting at 6pm on Tuesday 4th December. Hope to see you there!
We have signed up to the 100 word challenge. Some of our students decided to accept the challenge and write a story that included the prompt … but what colour should it be? …
This has given us a purpose and audience for our writing. It is also a great way to edit our writing. Exactly 100 words is not easy!
“What colour should it be?” Asked Dave “Uhhh, blue.” Answered Danny “ Ok.” Concluded Dave “ lets do it” Dave and Danny started painting, Dave does the left side and Danny does the right side. After a hour of long hard painting, Dave and Danny finally get to the last stroke where a single screw stuck in the wall. Dave painted over the screw and the room was complete. All of a sudden, the room started to lean and the wall started splashing them with cold, fresh water. At this point, they couldn’t stand anymore, they fell into the water, and drowned. By Henry
I squealed in excitement and raced up the stairs to my attic bedroom. I’m going to the mayors party! I’m going to the mayors party! Those words were racing around in my head. I finally reached my bedroom door. I threw open my wardrobe doors and looked inside. I had to wear a dress, it was the woman’s dress code, but what colour should it be? I had a jade green dress, a sky blue dress, a snow white dress, but finally I decided on a lilac dress. I grabbed some violet slippers and a purple ribbon. “Ready!” I shouted. By Emelia
But what colour should it be? I wondered glancing at all of my clothes stuffed in the closet. Oh how I wish I could chose. blue leggings, red t-shirt? I emptied the last of the tops onto the floor and sighed. I gasped,there was a massive door in my closet. I unlocked it and saw a hole. I poked my head through. The tunnel was lit by dim lanterns that casted ghostly shadows on the walls. “Nell dinner time.” I pulled my head back out and rushed down stairs for dinner. Then I realised, the door was still open!!! By Nell
“I finally get to dye my hair I’m so excited to dye my hair” said June “I’m only ten and I’m already allowed to die it”. “The only question is what colour should it be? Green? Nope too boyish. What about brown? definitely not. Hmm pink ? Too girly. What should I have? I can’t decide there are so many choices, purple, green, pink, yellow, brown, black, red, orange or white, even rainbow? Maybe some chicken soup well help me decide” June sat at the table trying to decide then she had an amazing idea for the colour of her hair. By Yasmin
I decide what colour my room should be, Navy. Because I think that is a good decision.Then my friend walks in and says why not blue.Then I start to rethink my choice and doubt myself. But my the answer that was in my head was what colour should it be? I thought about it all day and then I thought pink because that shows powerful and fun and that is what I like. Then I change my mind the green is too bright. I decide to go with mint. It is not to bright but not to dull. By Orla
What colour should it be? The crew didn’t know so they asked the schools. Each school said different colours. The crew choose a colour. But no one agreed. So they decided to think about it for a week. But it didn’t help. The schools grew impatient for the answer, then a kid in one of the school said “if you don’t know what colour you should chose why not choose a colour that the schools haven't said.’’ From that day, they thought of orange, a bright colour that no one said. Now there is the orange day parade. THE END By Zoe
Today we started our Friday Whanau Groups. We will be spending 20 minutes in our Whanau Groups every two weeks, after assembly. This week we focussed on writing. We shared some writing with each other and asked each other questions about our writing. It is really great to work with buddies across the school!
On Monday some of us read Play Scripts. We used Puppet Pals to read our stories. Our next steps are to write our own plays and record our own stories...
Some of us chose to write poems today while working in the Boating Club. We wrote some of our poems from models that we have used over the week. We will display these poems in the Boat House!
That was the Beach
Shared writing by Kate, Katherine, Kirsty, Emelia, Nell, Isabel, Georgina and Eva
Strolling down the beach one day
I came across a crab
I picked it up, it pinched me
And now I am feeling sad
To cheer me up
I swam in sea
I got stung by a jellyfish
Poor dear me!
So, I climbed upon the rocks
A dolphin leaped out of the blue
It splashed me, I fell in
And now I am covered in seaweed goo!
