Brain Growth and Struggle

We have been learning about brain growth and struggle. We know that we need to embrace struggle and accept challenges for our brain to grow.

We know how important mistakes are for our learning. We make mistake dances to celebrate!

Fulop: We focused on making our brains grow. The activity was to emphasise perseverance and to show how the brain learns. We started with a scrap piece of paper. We had to draw a perfect square in the middle, not on the edges. We did it. And that was when The Challenge began. We had cut out the WHOLE square in ONE straight line. Sure, first thought? Impossible. Utterly impossible. Well, no. I started to catch onto the way when Nicola announced that you can fold, and I immediately realised somehow folding had something to do with it. Later, I was still searching for the answer, and every way seemed to sort of change as I nearly accomplished it. In the end, I had to get help, but I kept on trying! For people who passed through “the Square”, there came, “The Oblong”... I tried that, but that was even more mind-boggling! But In the end, I managed square! When you learn something, new, delicate pathways will form, connecting two Neurons. If you keep learning it, and keep getting better at it, it will become a strong pathway, as if the brain paved it. It could also happen that when you learn about something that was an old pathway, it could strengthen. The last possibility is that two pathways you have already connect, forming a stronger pathway. The Brain is very interesting, Isn’t it?

Beatrix: It was really hard and I struggled a lot but I persevered and got it in the end. I tried it two times and it didn’t work but I tried again and I got it.

Charlotte: When you try something for the first time you will make a delicate pathway e.g. I was doing a math problem that was hard. But if you keep on trying and it will make a stronger pathway.

Hadley: It was an interesting feeling. I was annoyed at myself for not getting it but I was also growing my brain. It was quite complex to talk about.

Hunter: New pathways in your brain are delicate and easy to forget and break.but if you repeat and keep learning it the pathway will strengthen and strengthen so that it will be very hard to forget and break. The path ways can also connect with each other and join the learning together. The struggle was annoying and it made feel mad.

Olive: The struggle made me feel a bit panicked but when I calmed down I felt more confident. My brain is growing!

Sabine: I persevered by trying new ways if others didn’t work. I made a few mistakes but that’s ok because mistakes help your brain grow!

Yoichi: My brain grew because now I know what to do and what not to do.The struggle made me really frustrated and I started to think it was impossible. I persevered by not giving up, trying and then I DID IT!

Optimistic Human-Beans

In our Positive Education programme this term is based around Optimism! We started our work around this on Tuesday. We thought about the relationship between being Optimistic and using a Growth Mindset.

We made a loose connection between the seed and bean (so we could use the reference from the BFG... of course!) Naturally, we drew ourselves as beans. Creating a positive affirmation  for ourselves. We are looking forward to learning more in this space to help up to be more optimistic in our everyday life. 

Marble Run Fun!

In Māhutonga Matariki, we were inspired by the Weta Workshop's creative marble run competition. 

"Your mission is to take your marble on an EPIC journey through whatever your imagination and materials can conjure. When you’ve completed your structure, set your marble in motion and film the journey!"

We had to think like engineers and anticipate what the marble would do. We needed to practise our physics and geometry skills.

Nye and James were inspired by the prizes and wanted to turn Nicola into a dwarf or John into the 'creepy guy', Gollum, from the Lord of the Rings.

 

Nic and Mikayla's Whānau Group: Learning about Puanga

In Nic and Mikayla's Whānau group, we wrote collaborative poems to signify the importance of Punaga. We also created some star art! It was great to learn with other people across the school.

Here are some of the poems that we wrote:

Cupboard Spooks

During lockdown, We had a task of making a movie. We created one, by the name of Cupboard Spooks. It was, in a way, difficult to make, especially since visiting each other was banned. But what we did was that we cut the clips together to make it look like one house. We actually worked way over the deadline. We finished on about the week before the last week of school. We created the special effects. It was a really cool experience, and we want to make a sequel.

Celebrating Science!

We are celebrating and sharing our science investigations in Māhutonga Matariki!

This work is part of our Inquiry - Think Like A Scientist. We started by doing Geology experiments during science rotations we took this learning and explored our own interests in Geology and beyond..

'It was really fun because we had freedom in what we did and we could follow what interested us' - Greta

We have found it really challenging planning and carrying out our own investigations. This is tricky stuff! The learning we are doing falls under the Nature of Science branch of the New Zealand curriculum. Students are learning how to explore scientific ideas, carry out an experiment and communicating the findings. Our learners have risen to this challenge while pursuing their interests.

Puanga Whānau Day - Carl, Nik + Teuila

We had a great time connecting with our Whānau Group this week to learn about and celebrate Puanga. You may have heard of Matariki as being the Māori New Year. Read on to find out what we learnt about the Puanga, lesser known among pākehā but highly significant to us here at Whetūkairangi.

We started off the day learning a new waiata, which was gifted to us as a taonga from Te Āti Awa, the mana whenua of this rohe (region). We hope to sing this for you some time soon!


Then we spent a bit of time getting to know our new whānau members (and reconnecting with old ones). Then it was in to the art!

Yesterday we had a day of learning about Māori New Year. We learnt about Puanga and we did art. We had to cut out a mountain from card and with the scraps make texture on the mountain. We used tinfoil to make the star, Puanga, and we used pastel to colour the sky and other stars. Puanga is a star that you can see at the end of the Māori year. Matariki is what you see at the start.

- Chris G

We learnt a song from the Taranaki tribe which they sing at Puanga. Wellington mainly celebrates Puanga as we can't see Matariki because of the mountains. So, we made some mountain art with pastels and paper. We layered the mountain with cut out paper. Last but not least we added a tinfoil star - Puanga! 

- Sabine M

I learnt that Matariki isn't the only stars we celebrate. Puanga is higher in the sky than Matariki. I also learnt that Tautoru is three stars and they point at Matariki. The mountains block our view of Matariki.

- Tigerlily V

Part way through the day Matua Henare came to do a Kapa Haka workshop with us. A great opportunity to practice our skills with a mixed group from across the school. This gave our seniors a chance to show some leadership. Sometimes we perform together, but we hardly ever practice together so this was really special. Tau kē!

Learning about Puanga doesn't mean we forget about Matariki! Matua Henare taught us new lines for the song 'Te Iwa o Matariki' which add in the extra two stars:

Ko Pohutukawa e

Ko Hiwaiterangi e

Matariki, e arā e...