Getting into the Great Outdoors!

We had a fantastic couple of days in the great outdoors at the end of last week. We were getting out and exploring the peninsula. Ākonga presented their Magic Places to each other and in the process, learnt about some of the history and special features of the area. We did a solid amount of walking which was challenging for some; all part of our focus this year of building Grit!

On Thursday, we went around the Seatoun Peninsular, Oruaiti Reserve and over the Eastern Walkway to Tarakena Bay.

On Friday, we headed North, via Centennial Reserve and onward to Massey Memorial.

Helping Circle - Writing

 When we are working through the Writing Process we seek feedback from our peers, in the form of the Helping Circle. 

What is a helping circle?
The idea is that we share our work with someone else and we are given specific actionable feedback. We aim to focus on the content of the Writing and how it can be improved. Sometimes, students are asked to give '2 stars and a wish' or two things they like about the piece (and why) as well as a wish for improvement.

An important part of any Helping Circle, is listening. This is a skill we cannot practice enough! We encourage students to sit "knee to knee and eye to eye" so their body language says "yes I am present and I am listening to you". We take turns when sharing making sure to respect each others share time.

Designing a Dinosaur Zoo

In Maths, we have been designing our own Dinosaur Zoo. We have been collaborating, sharing ideas and coming to a consensus. We have set group goals together and have been reflecting on these goals.

We co-constructed a Success Criteria

1. Ask good mathematical questions
2. Understanding the question/what we are working on
3. We need to know the measurements
4. We need to include a scale e.g 1cm = 10m
5. Give the dinosaurs a generous space
6. Say the the area and perimeter for each item/ enclosure

We brainstormed some things that we could include in the Dinosaur Park:

We had to research to find the lengths of different dinosaurs and think carefully about how much room they would need in each enclosure. 

Willa: I learnt about area and perimeter. It was really fun because I love drawing and problem solving. It had lots of art in it and I had an open mind about it.

Samuel: The week was great because we designed a dinosaur zoo. I liked doing the dinosaur zoo because we got to work in groups. We were learning about squared and area. We were also learning about perimeter. Our group worked on about a 4 out of 5. We were pretty focused.

Amber: It was interesting learning about area and perimeter and doing the Dino zoo!

Marcia: This week was interesting because we learnt about area and perimeter but when we did that we also got to design a dinosaur zoo.

Ocean: I like doing the Dino zoo. I like dinosaur. I learnt about perimeter. 

The Dino Zoo Investigation is an example of a "low floor, high ceiling task." Stanford Professor, Jo Boaler says that "Mathematics classrooms should be places where students work on mathematics tasks with a low entry point but a very high ceiling – so that students are constantly challenged and working at the highest and most appropriate level for them." You can read more: How students should be taught mathematics: for parents

Boaler says, 'Mathematics classrooms should be places where students: 

Develop an inquiry relationship with mathematics, approaching math with curiosity, courage, confidence & intuition. 

Talk to each other and the teachers about ideas – Why did I choose this method?

Does it work with other cases? How is the method similar or different to methods other people used? 

Work on mathematics tasks that can be solved in different ways and/or with different solutions. 

Work on mathematics tasks with a low entry point but a very high ceiling – so that students are constantly challenged and working at the highest and most appropriate level for them. 

Work on mathematics tasks that are complex, involve more than one method or area of mathematics, and that often, but not always, represent real world problems and applications. 

Are given growth mindset messages at all times, through the ways they are grouped together, the tasks they work on, the messages they hear, and the assessment and grading. 

Are assessed formatively – to inform learning – not summatively to give a rank with their peers.

Students should regularly receive diagnostic feedback on their work, instead of grades or scores.

Summative assessments are best used at the end of courses. 

Mathematics classrooms should be places where students believe: Everyone can do well in math. 

Mathematics problems can be solved with many different insights and methods. 

Mistakes are valuable, they encourage brain growth and learning. 

Mathematics will help them in their lives, not because they will see the same types of problems in the real world but because they are learning to think quantitatively and abstractly and developing in inquiry relationship with math.'

Questions for Brindas School

Our friends at Brindas School made us a movie: http://cm1.galligani.eu/auroa-school/friends-2021-2022/

Dear Brindas School (CM2),

Thank you for your movie. We loved the way you used drama and dance!

We have some questions for you:

Tell us about your learning...
How are you doing with covid?
Do you have a uniform?
What do you like to eat?

Do you have a school canteen?  
Are you scared of your teachers?
Do you have a gym / physical education room?
Do you grow plants?
What do you like to do?
How long are your breaks during the school day?
Do you do writing?

Whats your favourite part about school?
What has been your greatest achievement?
What sports do you do?
Do you take classes to learn different languages?
What subjects do you learn?
What subjects do you like?
What subjects do you dislike?
What is your school like?
Are rats and mice pests in France?

What are you worried about? 

How do you feel about the future?

What are your favourite dinosaurs? 

Thank you, 

Māhutonga Matariki 

Getting into the Flow

 We’ve been putting in extra effort to get in the Flow this week.

What is Flow?

Flow is when we are working on a task that challenges us but we aren’t overstretched. We lose track of time and we might forget about the world around us (Nakamura & Csikszentmihalyi, 2005). Professional athletes talk of Flow or a feeling of ‘being in the zone’, when we are totally engrossed in what we are doing.

In addition, Einstein who, as he was working on the Theory of Relativity, came out of his office to play the piano and violin.  He would play, lose himself in his music and then make notes (on his scientific work), then go back to his music. It is said that he ‘imagined’ his best work while doing something completely different. Playing music helped him get in the Flow.

This is our aim, to get into the Flow. We asked:

When am I most in the Flow?

How do I get in the Flow?

What does it feel like to be in the Flow?

Why is Flow important?

Flow is an important factor in engagement. Research by Kashdan et al. (2010) shows us that engagement is a predictor of motivation, commitment and performance in tertiary education. So this mahi is important for us to practice now! 

Some students thoughts on Flow:

Charlie - "It’s easy to get in the Flow, you don’t really notice you’re in it. I find I get in the Flow while writing and in Maths occasionally. "

Olive - "Being in the Flow is ideas just keep coming into your head and you can’t block them out."

Otto B - "Flow is easy when you’re not stressed, when you have lots of time. You can think about things and think ‘Hmm.. this could be good.’ I’m usually writing or reading when I’m in the Flow. I know I’m in the Flow when I keep telling myself ‘a little bit more, oh just a little bit more.’ I can’t stop!"

Akonga in the flow as they created this mural!

Font and Colour - Visual Language

 In our mahi towards creating a school Zine we have been working on understanding colour and fonts with greater depth. These skills will help us to create high quality work for our Zine.

We have been learning about how colour can be used to make us feel a certain way, this is used in advertising all around us! For example, we had some thoughtful discussions around how the colour red can mean love but also anger. We recognised that characters in cartoons often have red faces to show us they're angry.  

We also have looked at the way in which colour from across the colour wheel can contrast and look effective.

We had a good dose of fun creating our own colour palettes which we have even named. 

We anticipate the work we have done this week will help us as we tackle the next phase of the Zine. Exciting times!

Zine (a work in progress)

We are ramping up our creative juices in a push to create content for the Zine. We have begun to make comics, diagrams, posters etc etc. We have LOVED having a go on Canva and creating some content using the programme. We are still honing our design skills and there will be more work on this in the coming weeks... Watch this space!

Information about our Inquiry from a previous post:

"Our Inquiry is called ‘Words and Pictures, Igniting the imagination’.

This Inquiry links to our school-wide Writing and Inquiry focus, creating a Zine which we can share with the Worser Bay community and beyond! We are beginning to work on different form of Visual Literacy and are learning more about magazines in general to generate inspiration."

We are using our on Visual Language Checklist to make sure what we are creating is 'quality work'