Whanaungatanga Whānau Day

At Worser Bay School, we sometimes work in Whānau groups. These are groups of children and teachers across the school. There is an added bonus- siblings and families work together. Teachers and students learn from each other! We have been thinking about Tuakana/ Teina. The older students teach the younger students. The roles can also be reversed. We saw this with great energy today!

We have been learning all about whanaungatanga across the school. Whanaungatanga is about relationships between people, people’s relationship with the environment, and the relationship between people and the non-physical ‘spiritual’ world.

Autahi students taught us some sign language. 

Tautoru taught us about kākahu (māori cloak). We made a kākahu and wrote down different ways to show whanaungatanga on the feathers.

Matariki Māhutonga ran workshops linked to the value of whanaungatanga. 

Why do Writers Write?

Why do writers write? I don’t know! Actually, why does anyone write? How do people know when to write? Maybe it is to cheer people up or calm you down or to maybe to get you excited about turning the page?! Or maybe writers write just for the money or fame. But what if I told you that writers don’t just have one reason to write their stories, they don't just have cheerfulness, they also have adventure and sadness, excitement and joy! Writer's books are fun to read so read a writer's book one day!

By Charlotte C

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.

Kei Te Pēhea Koe?

 We've been learning about new ways to express our feelings in Te Reo Māori... Here are some of our ideas here.

Have a practise at home!

Q: Kei te pēhea koe? How are you?

A: Kei te ______ ahau. I am _____.

Q: Me koe? and you?

Weet-bix Kids Try- Go Team Worser Bay!

Worser Bay had 38 students representing our little school on the hill at the Weet-bix Kids Try on Sunday. This was a huge turn out for the event and it was fantastic to see our community enjoying an early morning start to the day.  

Willow - My favourite part was the cycle race."

Leo K - "I liked the biking because it was fun to ride on the road."

Most of the students competed as individuals, we had a couple teams and some of our younger students braved the Dash and Splash race. It was also fantastic seeing a group of students giving the race a go for the first time. 

Petra - "I was so proud of myself. I have not taken my medal off."

Finn - " It was so good to finish!"

Eddie - "It was great and exhausting but I was so relieved when I finished!"

Our Bravery, Perseverance, and a whole bunch of our character strengths were on display not only on the day but during the many practice sessions leading up to Sunday.

Lucca - "I was the fastest in the swimming pool."

Hanna - "I was really happy because lots of Worser Bay kids were there."

Archie - "I loved riding my bike."

Kura - "I found it interesting that there were so many rows of bikes!"

Thanks to everyone involved with motivating, training and cheering the students along on Sunday. Let's make 2022 another great turnout from Worser Bay School!

Finding balance

 This week while the Year 6s were away us Year 4s and 5s investigated balance. We looked at ways that we can measure weight, finding balance and we also made our own working scales! It was interesting to find out what objects weighed the same. We were also interested to see how we could use the weights on one side to figure out how much something weighed on the other. 

We thought about balance a different way too. We looked at finding balance for ourselves. It has been said that improving one's balance helps with cognitive function and focus. We found this tricky but just need to keep practising! 

Kura Taiao/Enviroschools Ōtari Trip 2021

Yesterday we went on an Ōtari Bush trip with Ōtari and Houghton Valley Schools. We did a bunch of cool activities and learnt heaps of new things, and, it was just the year sixes! Hooray!

- Mae S

Activities that we did and things that we learned:

Testing the water clearness 

Looking at what critters were in the water to see how healthy it was

 Checking the water temperature

What water types are there; Run, Pool, Riffle 

 Going for a walk in the bush

How old the oldest trees were; 850 years

 That the river came from Zealandia and then the landfill

  That Addison loves Cicadas and kept one on her face the whole time 

We were with two other schools.

Looking at bugs that we found in a pile of debris and naming them by looking at them through a microscope.

  Types of plants; Rimu, Rata, Kawakawa, Whauwhaupaku

 Learning about different types of seeds and how they disperse.

 There is this type of tree that there are only 11 of and we saw one.

- Rani S

Star 1: My First star was doing the kaiwharawhara stream testing, because I liked looking through the magnifying glasses and studying all the creatures closely. I also like looking for the riffles and the runs and pools, and thinking/testing if the stream was healthy (and it was quite healthy). Star 2: My second star was looking through the microscopes and looking at the details of the creatures and leaf litter. there was one scope which showed the details of which leaf or stick or animal was on top of each other. I also found a container in the lab's creature storage with dried up millipedes which were curled up and dead. The bees were kind of FREAKY!!!
  

WISH: My wish was that we had more time to look through the microscopes, because it was really interesting to study all the tiny springtails and bees and things up close, but on the bright side, the stream testing was a bit like it anyway.

- Will J

Another fun thing was looking at bugs in magnifying glasses and we got to look for our own bugs in sticks and leaves and dirt then looking under the microscope. I had lots of fun.

- Ethan F

Another star, a thing that I loved seeing was the 850 year old tree. It was so wide and big. I just wonder how much wood you would get if you chopped it down. And I wonder how much it weighs. Though the tree looks like it is 1000 years old.

- Yoichi S

I loved going on the walk and learning lots of different stories from Māori culture, they really inspired me to look on the bright side of things and we learnt about lots of different berries and their stories.

  My wish is to get out more into the bush and acknowledge all the beautiful things and how lucky we are to have a great country.

- Eddie B

It was also fun planting the kōwhai seeds and I learnt that if you sand the seed it will be easier to let the water in.

- Cleo S

Fresh air. 1 star. Admiring bugs and insects I learnt a lot. 2 star. It was very exciting and it was also fun. My wish is to go there again. To me it's precious.

- Archie M