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.

The Hurricanes come to Worser Bay School

Last week, The Hurricanes came to visit. It was a wish from one of our students.

We asked them lots of questions. We found out that they need to train really hard and set goals. It is a bit like how we set goals and take small (Kaizen) steps to achieve these goals.

'Kaizen' is also known as continuous improvement or a 'change for the better'. Kaizen is a philosophy we implement at Worser Bay School. Kaizen is a Japanese word. Kai, meaning change and Zen meaning good. The type of change is small and incremental. Small changes in the right direction add up and eventually we are able to meet our big goal.

Mindfulness Meditation

What's this?  Sleeping students in the middle of the day?

Kind of, well actually they are BREATHING!  Slowing everything down and preparing for further learning.  We have been doing this everyday and many students are saying they feel so much better afterwards. 
The benefits of meditation, breathing and in this case, being guided, through positive thinking activities has being well documented.  These include:
*Reducing stress
*Controls anxiety
*Promotes emotional health
*Enhances self awareness
*Lengthens attention span
*Can generate kindness

                                                Oh, it is so peaceful............

If you would like to find out more or learn how to meditate yourself, here are some useful tips.
Meditation: Psychology Today 

Active Demonstration or Modelling

In the writing flow.

Active demonstration is an approach to learning about writing in which we all construct a piece together.  We heard a story about a friend of John's who is really colourful.  He is an artist and a musician amongst other things.  His name is also John.
During Active demonstration we model all of the things which good writer's do and we think aloud as we write, to show the process of constructing a story.
Before writing we made a list of all the things we need to think about as we write.  We realised that we could also use this for our goal setting for the session.

Character Writing: What do we need to keep in mind?

• Hook the reader in, keep them Hooked!
• Show don’t tell
• Paint a picture in the reader’s mind
• Drop straight into the action
• Remember to describe the setting

Characters:

• Describe them in ‘Action’
• Describe how they move and what they do
• Describe how they talk and what they say (using dialogue)
• Describe what they are thinking and feeling
• Describe how others react to them
• Describe their habits and special features
• Describe what they look like

*eyes, what do they do?

*teeth, what are they like?

*Hands

*Skin

*Clothes (if they are special or remarkable)

Lillian is thinking about the writing!

We wrote about John's hungry friend also called John.  

Furious!

I met him when I was 17.  He looked like a rat at the piano, fingers flying over the keys.  A piano playing rat.  A rat genius!  He was only ten years older than me, but he already behaved like an old man.  An old man at 26.  Be careful of this guy; he can be fun but he can also be poisonous.  His name is John Niland. 

"Don't call me John Island!"

"Where's my dinner", he yells stomping his foot, jumping up and down, a haka, his shaggy hair falling over his flashing eyes.  "I need to eat! Now!"

Angles are all around us!

We continued our look into angles and we have discovered that we can see them everywhere! This week in Maths we have been finding angles around our school, and we'd like to extend our search to home and beyond.

We have created this padlet as website where we can share our learning. Check it out and add the angles you discover!

Positive Accomplishment through Cross Country

Last Wednesday our students ran our annual Cross Country on Worser Bay Beach. Positive Accomplishment focuses on enabling individual growth through achieving meaningful outcomes. 

Students have been striving for goals. Achieving these goals has been highly rewarding. Our students have been embracing the Cross Country challenge with grit and determination. 

Sophie: This week my goal was to try my best at Cross Country, and I achieved this goal. The character strength I used was Perseverance as I had to keep running.

Ella: My cross country goal was to try my best. I did try my best. 

Nela: I showed good sportsmanship and paced myself so I did achieve my goals.

Solly: The Character Strengths I used was Bravery and Perseverance in Cross Country. I needed to use my Growth Mindset because I needed to change some of my tactics to move to a higher place. My goals went quite well because I did what I wanted to.

Nell: My goal was to try my hardest in cross country. I tried my hardest and completed it, not dragging behind. I had to walk some of it but tried to run and jog most. I almost gave up on the last half but I kept going and I made it! I am really proud. I loved clapping people on.

Octavia: I achieved my goal. My goal was to not stop and walk at any point in the race. I had to use Perseverance because I really wanted to stop and walk but I didn’t.

Rhosyn: I did use my Growth Mindset in Cross Country this week. I persevered and I am proud of myself!

Archie: I used the character strength of bravery because I kind of didn't want to do it. I felt happy at the end. I felt like I did a good job.

Talia: My goal was to persevere and support other people in cross country. I did good and I persevered and supported a lot of people. I persevered a lot while I was running and tried not to give up even though I was in a lot of pain.

Beatrix: I am grateful to have ran the course.

Evie: At Cross Country I achieved my goal by using my Growth Mindset and not giving up. The Character Strength that I used was Perseverance because I keep going. Cross Country was fun but also hard because about two times I got a stitch. I liked it because me and Cleo ran together. As soon as me and Cleo came up to the grass we heard everybody shouting "Go Evie and Cleo!" Everyone was so encouraging. As soon as I passed the end my throat was cracking. I ran up and grabbed my water bottle. "Good job" my mum said to me. She also gave me a big hug and then me and my friends made a city out of sand.

Chris: I did well in Cross County. I think I did well on my goals. I kept on going. I tried my hardest.

Will: I used Perseverance, Bravery, Zest, Growth Mindset, and a bit of Prudence and Humility. I came about 21st, 20th, 19th, 18th, or 17th. We went around the rock (Jeffery/Bob/Spiny Norman) then through the dunes and on to the grass and back through the grass and onto the sand, back up the dunes and onto the grass then back through the grass and onto the sand and finish where we started.

Pippa: I did achieve my goal by pacing myself so I wouldn't get tired 😴 and I am so proud of myself for not racing against anyone but myself I used Perseverance and Zest.

Anastasiya: Cross Country was great but hard. I really enjoyed it, especially the part were I helped Autahi. I think I have achieved my goals and I am looking forward to the next Cross Country.

Tessellation Art

This week we have enjoyed exploring concepts of geometry and measurement through meaningful and authentic tasks. We made tessellation art this week. We were inspired by the work of Escher. 

Tessellation is a pattern or shape that fits together perfectly with no overlaps or gaps. 

By Joni

By Octavia 

This artwork was very challenging and we had to use Growth Mindset to persevere. We also had to remain positive.