A mission to Mars

Scott's literacy group has been learning about Mars. Our mini inquiry has looked at space travel, space stations, and Mars.



We decided to work as a team to complete a variety of tasks as life on Mars will require a lot of team work and problem solving.



We spent a morning reading instructions on how to put a tent up. It was very tricky because they were not in English!



We each had different jobs that helped the team construct the tent.

Solar Ovens

During inquiry, we are exploring solar power.  To investigate how a solar oven works, we had a little experiment today.
We put a biscuit with some chocolate buttons into our oven. We need to make sure the oven doors are closed properly. The prediction was that the chocolate buttons will melt and the biscuit will turn brown.

Here are some pictures of our experiments.

Can you explain the science of how a solar oven works?

Discovery

Fridays in Tautoru are a time for discovery and exploring our wonderings. It is a time to make connections and collaborate with people we don't often get a chance to work with. During discovery we lead our own learning, asking questions about things that interest us and finding new and unique ways to research and problem solve.

This Friday there were a variety of provocations around Tautoru to get us started in our discovery. It was fantastic to see the amount of creativity, curiosity and collaboration happening at each provocation. The best part was seeing huge smiles, lots of laughter and wonderful discussions as we all collaborated with different people. 

Here are some links and photos below. To see more, check out Seesaw.

Music Making - Can you use these everyday objects in different way to create unique sounds and music?

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Drama - Can you create a puppet show about character strengths?

Group 1

Group 2

Characters in our show

 

Can you create a Mandala out of "loose parts"?

Solar Ovens

It was lots of fun to work with our friends in Mahutonga. We made solar ovens as part of our Inquiry. 

Kei te hiakai ahau!

This term we are learning some new (and very usesful) phrases in Te Reo Maori. You may hear us using them around the table at dinner time. Join in! We'd love to keep practising our Te Reo at home.

Do you like.......

No I do not like........

Yes I do like.......

This week we practised these new phrases during our discovery time. Click the  link to see this video of us at a cafe using our Te Reo.

Tautoru's Christmas Helpers!

One of our morning activity groups is Service. The Service team in Tautoru have been busy writing letters and making posters to kick their sneaky secret Christmas plan into action...

Christmas in a Shoebox!!!

Over the next couple of weeks we are collecting shoe boxes, wrapping paper and any little toys or gifts (for children) under the value of $30. 

Our goal is to pack the shoe boxes with little gifts and then wrap the boxes and donate them to the City Mission. 

The Christmas shoe boxes will be given to children at Christmas who often don't get presents.

If you can help us with any donations, please drop them in to Susie in Tautoru by 30th November.

Check out our posters below for more information.

We would love any help you can give us to help us put together as many Christmas shoe boxes as we can!

Drama to start the day.

We have been having fun on Wednesday and Thursday mornings, playing fruit salad, while acting a part as we move. We also used our imaginations to think of different things a stick from the second little pig's house could be.... a shovel, a fork, a comb, a walking stick, a back scratcher, a wand, etc. In this picture we had to show what our faces would look like when we were given dinner that we didn't like....

And in this picture we have just won a prize! 

We are using our creativity and our bravery to act some of the parts!