Ngake and Whataitai

Retelling stories is always interesting. We have noticed that every time the story is retold it changes! The story is embellished, parts are exaggerated and maybe other parts have been left out. The same is true of the much loved myth concerning our local Taniwha, Ngake and Whataitai. Everytime we encounter the story it has developed and become more interesting. It is an extremely dynamic story and it explains some of the local geographical features of Te Whanganui-a-Tara. It is also a tale of friendship, challenge, and grief. We will be continuing to work with our local stories as we go toward term 3's Arts Celebration. We want to unpack them, understand them and tell them again in our own words. Here are some of the story mountains which students have begun developing to capture the main events and the dynamic shape of this story.

Positive Education in action!

Strong relationships amongst peers play a crucial role in the wellbeing and resilience of children and adolescents, whereas poor mental health outcomes are associated with unstable school environments and peer relationships.

The influence of relationships on health is diverse, as they promote self-care, endorse healthy habits like balanced nutrition and physical health, and nurture positive emotions that support overall bodily functions.

We all possess an intrinsic biological and psychological inclination for social connections and a sense of belonging and have a fundamental need for secure interpersonal connections and to perceive ourselves as worthy of care, empathy, love, and respect.

In the Māhutonga Matariki classroom spaces, we're diving deep into the importance of Teamwork, and what it entails in relation to positive peer relationships. You may have heard your child talk about 'Survivor'. This is a framework used to teach the explicit skills of developing Healthy Relationships, Teamwork, active and constructive communication, creative and flexible thinking.

Here's how it works: each term, students from each base group are organised into groups (using a random mixer so it's truely random). Each group comes up with a team name (my personal favourite so far is 'Lord of the Parakeets'!) Every Tuesday, we teach a Positive Education lesson which is focused around a different Learner Attribute/s and the Positive Education focus (this is currently 'Positive Relationships'). The learning from this lesson is taken into the Reward Challenge where students have to work in their teams to complete the task.

An example of this is the Week 2 challenge: 'Marble Roll'. 

During the challenge, groups were asked:
- How can each member of the group contribute? 
- How does our group make decisions together? 
- What does healthy communication look and sound like?

Points are added to the leaderboard and contribute to an overall score for term-long programme. On Wednesday's, we do a 'Tribal Council' where each group must unanimously vote for one other team to have a deduction of 50 points. Teams must practise their active communication skills to reach an agreement together. Every Friday, the groups take part in a 'Kahoot' which includes questions from each Learning Area and serves as a 'round-up' of the week's learning. The winning team receive immunity for the next Tribal Council.

Using a framework like 'Survivor' to teach skills related to Healthy Relationships, Teamwork, active and constructive communication, creative and flexible thinking is beneficial for all students. It has been rewarding to see students connect with each other and it is a fantastic vehicle to nurture Leadership skills as well.

Watch this space for updates!

Winning teams from the Week 2 'Marble Roll' Reward Challenge.

Cross Country

We have been training for our school Cross Country event, trying to raise our speed and levels of fitness in preparation for the big event. We have set personal goals, emphasising the aim of pushing and extending ourselves over competition with others. We are already seeing some great results with increased levels of fitness across the board and some really enthusiastic runners. We will be at Worser Bay Beach at about 9:30 on Wednesday the 15th. The event usually involves a quick dash up and down the beach, through the dunes, across the grass and back to the start/finish. Please come to support our amazing runners if you are able to. Those who are particularly keen may qualify for the Eastern Zone Event to be held at Scots College on the 22nd of May. More information about this event will follow when we know who is in our Cross Country team.

Memoir Writing:

We have kicked off Term 2 getting straight into some new writing. Memoirs are an interesting genre, usually the preserve of the elderly, reflecting on a complete life but we aren't waiting for our eighties. We have begun our memoir collection writing about our old soft toys. They hold a lot of power, good memories and comfort. Identifying the features of a memoir was our first step. These include:

Then we had a go at writing a piece all together about John's sad old stuffed (in every way) elephant Alpo.

Over the course of the year students will add to their collections of personal stories and reflections, retelling important moments of their lives to date and musing about the thoughts and wonderings which occur to them. Maybe this process will help make sense of events for them. Watch this space for examples of kid's writing.

Celebrating Writing in the Māhutonga Matariki Whānau

We have a wonderful positive literary culture in our Whānau. The Library is running full steam ahead, the reader's noses buried in books and our writers too are fully engaged, creating amazing stories and poems. Beth recently surveyed our students to see how they felt about writing and whether or not they see themselves as writers. Overwhelmingly the responses were positive. We work hard at Writing and do it multiple times a day. We write for many purposes, sometimes to inform, sometimes to entertain, sometimes to convice or persuade others to think about an issue in a different way. Sometimes we write for the joy of it, seeing something of oursleves, our thoughts, feelings and sense of humour emerging on the page. This term we have written stories based on personal experiences, retellings of myths, and many poems. The poems below invite a comparison between a chosen animal and some of the kid's attributes and behaviours. A good challenge which involve the students thinking creatively, choosing the best words and arranging them in the best order and working with a set form. Enjoy!

Kaitiaki of our coast!

This week, Māhutonga Matariki took a trip down to Worser Bay Beach, where we took turns sailing and exploring the coastline. 

Year 5/6 students proved themselves to be great leaders and encouragers of our Year 4 students, for some of whom had not experienced sailing before. 

As the day progressed, we transitioned from sailing to a different kind of exploration – delving into the mysteries of marine life with a plankton net. As kaitiaki of the coast, we test the health of the marine ecosystems. With guidance from experts of the Moanamana team, we dipped our net into the water, eager to uncover the hidden inhabitants of the ocean. 

To our amazement, our nets yielded a diverse array of plankton, tiny organisms that play a crucial role in the ocean's ecosystem. Through careful observation and identification, we gained insights into the health of the ocean around Worser Bay. We investigated the health of the rock pools as well, with some fascinating discoveries of peculiar and otherworldly creatures.

The Theme is Adventure: Camp, Philosophy and Hobbits!

We have begun reading the Hobbit. Of course it is a book of great adventure, risk taking, amazing learnings and incredible rewards. Unpacking the them in our Philosophy for Children session (P4C) we came up with questions and considerations and then noted that we have experienced many of the same things at camp last week. Amazing challenges and wonderful rewards!

Examples of the questions we asked: *What happens when we accept the call to adventure? * Why do we fear the unknown? *Why do we focus on our fears and the negatives? *Can we change fate? *How much are our lives determined by free choice? It is interesting to reflect on our real life experiences and compare them to the experiences and adventures of characters such as Bilbo Baggins.