Questioning and Inquiry

Student Inquiry is at the heart of learner agency. Students need to be able to ask good questions to chase their curiosity and wonderings. This helps students to build on the knowledge that they already have.

This term, the learner attribute that we are focussing on is "I am a thinker." An important part of being a thinker  is being able to ask good questions. We would like our students to design and ask red, orange and green light questions.

Our learners thought about the different types of questions when writing our own for the "Forest Protector" Inquiry. Here are some of them: 

We have also made an "attribute mountain" so students can see how we are going with their questioning. The avatars will climb up the mountain as our students improve their questioning abilities.  

Please ask us at home about our questions and how we will go about finding out what we are curious about...

Forest Protectors- What if there was no pest control in NZ?

Today we begun our new Inquiry- Forest Protectors! As a tuning in activity we did 4 rotations. One of the rotations was a provocation- what if there was no pest control in New Zealand?

We watched:

We worked in small groups to create a consequence map. 

Today's Visitor: Robert Gordon

Molly A: Today a man called Robert came in and talked to us about his radio career. He tried to get a licence to be on the radio but he failed. You need a license for getting a radio station so you don’t do anything nasty. He talked about when he started trying out for a radio station and when he stopped.

Josie & Millicent: A man called Robert came into school to talk about his radio life. He talked about what he enjoyed about it. He talked about how competitive the radio industry was. When he was at university, he started a pirate radio station. His station was soon closed down by the post office because they did not have a licence so they didn't say nasty thing about other people. They were on television once because of his station and they had to wear stockings over their heads so people didn’t know who they were.

Liv: It was so exciting! He also mentioned the fact that he wanted to play sports but didn’t because his brother was better than him and he didn’t want to show that to others. But then his brother hurt his hip and now Roberts probably better than his brother now.

Danielle: Now he is working behind a desk at a computer helping people at the Commerce Commission.

Charlie: Robert wanted to play sports, but he didn’t because his brother was better than him so he didn’t want to embarrass himself.

Takehisa: I liked the bit where he talked about Tennis and other sport stuff.

Elliot: I like the part when he talked about using American accents and he changed his voice lots.

Jack: I liked the talk about the radio stations and how they have changed over time. He was really interesting because he told good stories.

Hanne-I liked how Robert was very interested in radios and I liked how funny he was!

Khailin: I liked learning about the radio stations. And how they became so popular. Angelina: I liked learning about the radio it was very funny to listen to him talking in funny accents.It was fun hearing about radio.

Message from Robert, "This morning I went to Worser Bay school and talked to lots of children there.  The class was very welcoming and made me comfortable talking about myself and things I have done in radio. The questions the children asked were excellent! Amongst other questions, I was asked about my music preferences when I was at university, whether I played an instrument, and whether I was still kept up the friendship with the radio people I worked with. They were all great questions that help understand what the person talking to them is like and what makes them tick.

After I finished talking to them, the children clapped and sang to me wonderfully. And then, in the afternoon they published a blog article about my talk. My workmates at the Commerce Commission were most impressed!"

A big thank you to Robert for coming in to talk to us. Here is a song to say thanks...

Singing from Matariki on Vimeo.

Gilbert- Who is in our community?

Miramar Peninsula Visitor

On Tuesday the 16th we had a 92 year old visitor come to see and talk to us about the Miramar peninsula. His name is Gilbert and he lives near our school. Gilbert moved to Miramar from Dunedin when he was 12 years old.

Gilbert was in the territorial army and went to Italy and Egypt during the Second World War. He said that it wasn’t a pleasant experience.

We all sat down and asked him questions, it was very interesting, he told us that he used to work at a factory called Shell, that was on Park Road where Weta Digital is now.

These are some of the questions we asked…..

What sports did you play?

A: Rugby, but we lost lots of our games. I wasn’t very big, so I was in division 2.

How has Miramar changed since you were a child?

A: It’s mostly the same, but the airport has changed quite a bit.

Where did you work?

A: I worked at a factory called ‘The Shell’ for all his life except for when he was training in the army for World War 2

What's your scariest memory?

A: He said that he didn’t remember anything that was scary in this area, but the World War 2 was really scary.

What is your Best memory when you were a kid?

A: There was a movie cinema where the Roxy is now and he used to go down there every Friday or Saturday afternoon. He would watch a movie, then sweep the floors after the movie and in return the owners would give him free entry for the movie.

That was  also where he met his first girlfriend.

How old are your children?

A: I have 8 children and the eldest is 69 and the youngest is about 50. They are all doing very well. One was a runner and now trains people in the USA.

By Asha and Chanel

Dear Gilbert,

Thank you for telling us about your story in New Zealand and how you came to Miramar. It was really cool when you talked about Egypt and Italy during World War One.

From Evie

Dear Gilbert,

Thank you for coming in. I enjoyed your stories about the war and Miramar. Everyone listened so well because your stories were so fantastic.

From Lucas and Hugo

Dear Gilbert,

Thank you for all your interesting facts about your life. It was  great having you here, we want to hear more about you.

We liked listening to your stories about the airport. We liked how it got us thinking about what it used to look like.

We also liked hearing about what you used to do to entertain yourself. It would be cool to get a free cinema pass.

The story about the tank in the boat was funny. You explained what happened and you hooked us in.

Thank you for your time,

Hayley and Manaia

Dear Gilbert,

Thank you for coming in today and telling us about Miramar peninsular,

It was very interesting.

I never knew that about Miramar.

What was it like living on earth when the world war was happening?

Thanks again Gilbert for coming in.

By Chanel

Dear Gilbert,

Thanks you very much for coming in and speaking to us about your past life in Miramar, it was very interesting. My Great Grandad went to war as a medical server. Thank you for answering questions, the answers were very interesting and I was very engaged.

Thanks again for coming in!

From,

Gretel

Dear Gilbert,

Your talk was very interesting.

I liked learning about Miramar's past and it gave me ideas for Miramar's future might be like. Your stories were very interesting they hooked me in and you kept the thrill going.

Thank you for coming in and talking to us,

From Jack K

Who is in our backyard? Stories about our backyard...

We have been doing some finding out about the important people that have lived in our land before us. This is linked to our next inquiry, "who is in our backyard?" 


We generated questions for each of the stories...



Who was Kupe?  Where did he come from?  Who was with him?  What did he do when he was here?  Where did he live when he was here? How did he get here?  How did he get home?

Kupe Story



Maui story



Sam Hunt talks to people who live around the Cook Strait.   http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/catching-the-tide---sam-hunts-cook-strait-1988  

Te Rauparaha:  Who was Te Rauparaha?  What is he famous for? What is his story?

Te Rangihaeata:  Who was Te Rangihaeata?  What is he famous for? What is his story?

Where was Tandy’s tavern? (the house of spirits)  What happened there?

Who was the woman who floated from Stephen’s Island to Kapiti?  How did she do this?

Taniwha story: Ngake and Whataitai

Where is Te Whanganui a Tara?  Who is Tara?

 

Who lived at Whetukairangi Pa?

What is over the fence?

What's in our back yard from Matariki on Vimeo.

John has been taking groups of children over the bank to see what is there. We looked for insects, treasure and trash. There was tons of glass down there. We threw hoops, we dug where the hoops landed. 

By Rory and Jasper

What is in your backyard? Please add any interesting picture that you have.

What is in your backyard? Please add any interesting pictures that you have...

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Perry's Hedgehog

People have been bringing in things they have discovered in their backyards and displaying them in our Discovery Area.  There are insects; Weta, spiders and cicadas, a birds nest, a piece of pounamu, hedgehogs, bottles and coins.  It is amazing to see what people have found and, interesting to think about the things that have been thrown away.

Inquiry challenges

We are exploring invention and innovation in inquiry at the moment. Yesterday we completed some BP challenges (http://www.starters.co.nz/bpchallenge-index.html) to tune in to what we could invent or innovate. We were trying to create a stretcher that could carry a classmate, a marble run so our marble could hit a target and a "picker" to remove a ball from a high, unstable place.

Have a look at some of the photos of us creating and exploring:


Inquiry challenges from Matariki on Vimeo.

Questions and Wonderings about Invention and Innovation

Created with Padlet

Last week we started our new inquiry: Innovation and Invention. Please add any questions or wonderings that you have to the padlet.

Andy's Presentation.

Rotations

This morning we have a rotation happening. Floorball, inquiry and the Star test. For the inquiry we were lucky enough to have Andy come in and talk to us about innovation and invention. We looked at some really interesting medical innovations like skin grafts, as well as some other inventions. Please chat to us at home to find out what else we found out about.

Inquiry

Inquiry:

Today in inquiry we looked at provocations and began coming up with our own.  We tuned in by watching an interesting video about balloons moving through water. 

Listen to some of our questions asked today:



Some questions we had today during inquiry from Matariki on Vimeo.

Inquiry - Invention and Innovation

Yesterday in inquiry we explored different inventions and innovations. We were able to touch and play with different objects while we asked questions like "when was this invented?" and "why would you need this?"

Today we followed this up by asking "Are these inventions useful?"  

Inquiry - invention and innovation from Matariki on Vimeo.

What else can a paper clip be used for?

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What is in the picture? Hot Potato

Hot Potato- Creative Thinking from Nic on Vimeo.

What do you think of when you hear the word "Imagination"?

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