Matariki Stars

Matariki is Maori New Year. We have been talking about the stars that we see in the sky at Matariki. We learnt what each star is kaitiaki of and we made some booklets to show our learning. Waita is kaitaiki of the sea, Waiti of fresh water and Waipuna a rangi is kaitaiaki of the rain. Have a look at the summary or come and look at our booklets, and you will learn about the others.

Body Gardens

On Wednesday and Thursday this week we have been creating Body Gardens to show our learning about measurement and different types of symmetry. We had to measure parts of our body, for example, the length from our wrist to out elbow or from our foot to our knee for the stem of the flower, and then we drew around our hands for the leaves or butterflies and our fingers for the petals. We placed the leaves and petals on our plants in different ways- some showing reflectional symmetry, some showing transformational symmetry and some showing rotational symmetry.

Arrays, Multiplication and Visual Maths

We have begun to find out about counting in sets by using arrays to make multiplication visual. Making maths visual is an important way to help our brain learn and remember new mathematical information.

One group worked on different ways to solve problems like 8 x 6 (eight sets of six). There were lots of different ways!

Then we moved onto different problems involving planting in rows and we used the array to help us work it out. Here are some examples:

Next, we will think about which strategies work best for different problems and use arrays from everyday life to make multiplication visual. Maths is everywhere!

Tawhirimatea-A Song for Matariki

Today we read the story called "Tawhirimatea, A Song for Matariki" and we talked about some of the Maori Gods. We created pastel artworks using koro patterns, showing one of the Gods.

Can you recognise which picture goes with Tangaroa, the God of the sea and which picture goes with Tawhirimatea, the God of the wind?

Measurement

This week in Maths we have been working on Measurement. We are learning to estimate how long and high objects are and then to check and see how accurate our estimations are. We found out that the more we tried, the closer our estimations got to the actual measurement- which just shows, Perseverance and a Growth Mindset, really helps!

Sometimes we measure using non- standard measures, like blocks, or rods, or cubes.

And sometimes we measured using a ruler.

Bush Builders

Last week we welcomed guests from the zoo.  As past of the  Bush Builders project from Term One we spent time in the school grounds identifying animals, plants, and we also managed a bit of clean up along the way!



The enthusiasm the students show for creatures and the environment is fantastic. There was a lot of excitement about spiders, worms, and we even saved a butterfly!



Being Kaitiaki of the environment means that we were very careful about returning anything we found back to its home and taking care with where we stepped.

Jump Jam on Wednesdays

Jump Jam

We are doing Jump Jam on every Wednesday at morning tea.

It’s at the front of Tautoru and it’s optional.

There will 6 of us to show you what to do.

We would love you to come and dance with us.

Bring your best dance moves!

Kaitiaki Actions

This term our Inquiry has focused on our school environment and how we can be Kaitiaki (guardians) of our special place. 

Over the last few weeks we have been practising positive purpose through the Taking Action phase of our Inquiry. Positive purpose is the idea of 'giving back' or 'doing good' (an act of service) for someone or something else. 

All of our Inquiry actions are related to making improvements to our Worser Bay school environment:

Team Trees..

Looking after and protecting the trees that we have already.

Team Bird..

Encouraging more birds to visit our trees. 

Team Worm..

Building a worm farm so that we can improve the condition of our soil.

Team Pollinators..

Planting flowers that will encourage more pollinators to visit our gardens.

This Inquiry into how we can be Kaitiaki of our environemnt has been valuable in helping our children understand and develop a sense of responsibility to their immediate world (school community). 

Engaging in acts of service give us a sense of meaning and purpose which enable us to feel positive emotions which we know are important for our physical and psychological health.

Take a walk around our school grounds to see how we have been taking action to improve our environment for everyone.

World Writing Buddies - Building Positive Relationships

Last term everyone in Tautoru wrote letters that were sent to children at two schools - one in Australia and one in Luxembourg.  

This week a group of us received our first replies back and boy were we excited to find out about our writing buddies in Australia!

Some of us found we had things in common with our buddies - they liked rugby, were the same age and some had been born in NZ. Their school sounded different to ours...they had FIVE playgrounds and weren't as lucky to have a view as beautiful as ours!

Taking part in the World Writing Buddy programme gives our learners an authentic purpose for writing. It is a unique learning experience and is a great way to practise our writing an communication skills. Our children were motivated and engaged to send a reply. They had many questions they wanted to ask their new friends across the Tasman.

Being involved in a collaborative programme like this also helps our children to continue developing positive relationships. Although we may not meet our writing buddy face to face, (but maybe one day...) sharing information about our culture, interests and finding things we have in common helps us to develop a strong connection. We also learn to practise patience - we have had to wait a long time for our (snail) mail to arrive but it was the best feeling ever receiving a letter that was just for me!

Mindfullness Tuesday

Before heading to swimming on Tuesday we were lucky to have the students from Autahi join us in Tautoru. The students worked through a number of different activities that had a mindfulness focus.

Some of the activities were quite challenging and required a significant amount of focus to complete. Shona worked with a group of students and taught them how to finger knit. You may notice a number of creative bracelets, headbands, or worms around the class or even at home!

Another group followed a very engaging and fun Star Wars yoga routine with Darth Vader breathing and Yoda poses.

There was also a beading group. Our fine motor skills were getting a good work out at this station. We were able to see the students using and developing a number of character strengths along with working independently and in teams to complete activities. As the weather remained wet and wild outside their was a calming focus inside the classroom.