We are spending time in class unpacking the character strengths that students are not so familiar with. At the end of last term Autahi and Tautoru roamed the school and identified strengths that they
wanted to explore more.
This week we have been sharing our ideas around the character strength - Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence. The students discussed and shared their perspectives on a number of images and if they were beautiful or not.
We agreed on terms of what a good discussion looks, sounds and feels like. The students identified that it helps to look at the person talking, to be respectful of everyone's ideas, and the importance of justifying your ideas.
We were all very excited to be back at school on Monday and it was fantastic to see students keen to get started with their learning and we had a treat for the first day back - an Arts rotation!
Students worked through three different projects, printmaking, mixed media art, and photography. We have a school wide Arts Celebration in week 5 and we are using this time to introduce and explore different arts techniques and artists.
Remember to book time for the Celebration in week 5, either a Wednesday or Thursday night or both if you wish! We will continue to focus on visual art of the next couple of weeks and then explore how to create a soundscape or musical piece to accompany our art. Lots of fun activity to come over the next few weeks!
Students loved the tactile element of this activity. A great opportunity to get mucky, sticky while creating our landscapes. Check out seesaw and the blog for future posts.
During the holiday break we ran a workshop on Number Talks. This was attended by 30 teachers and principals from 10 schools as well as Maths advisors from the Wellington region. We wanted to share what we have been doing at Worser Bay because it has a big impact on student engagement and achievement.
What does developing a Mathematical Community of Inquiry mean to us?
Mathematics is a creative and challenging real world activity.
Positive beliefs about mathematical ability are essential.
Maths has to be visual and collaborative; with time and strategies to investigate, discuss, explore concepts and reflect.
At Worser Bay School, we have been inspired by the work of Jo Boaler who is a professor at Stanford University. She provides resources and ideas to help students get excited about Maths.
"You have probably heard people say they are just bad at math, or perhaps you yourself feel like you are not “a math person.” Not so, says Stanford mathematics education professor Jo Boaler, who shares the brain research showing that with the right teaching and messages, we can all be good at math. Not only that, our brains operate differently when we believe in ourselves. Boaler gives hope to the the mathematically fearful or challenged, shows a pathway to success, and brings into question the very basics of how our teachers approach what should be a rewarding experience for all children and adults."
For a Number Talk to be successful, students need to be respectful in discussion. We have co-constructed (with our students) the rights and responsibilities for discussion in a Number Talk.
James and Nicola's Whanau groups (with Neil stepping in to great affect!) retold the tale of how Maui discovered fire, through the medium of puppets!
First we got into groups and retold the legend on paper
Then we got back together to share, before planning and discussing what we needed to make as a group. We talked: how we wanted to do it, what characters we needed to make, the settings for the scenes and the backing music!😎
We made sure that everybody played their part in creating the artwork for the show - as well as the telling of our story, whether on stage during the performance or recording the voice acting and narration. Some of our seniors even made the backing music, an original score 😉
We've begun to celebrate Matariki, Te Tau Hou Māori, The Māori New Year.
Some of us begun by creating some special star art to represent the different stars of Matariki. We've been learning a waiata that also has all the names of the Matariki star cluster: Waiti, Waita, Waipunarangi, Tupu-a nuku, Tupu-a-rangi, Ururangi and Matariki.
As Matariki celebrates Te Tau Māori- the Māori new year- some of made a wish for the coming year. We use the character strengths of Love and Hope to wish for things to help our world become a better place. You can have a look at our beautiful art this week in Tautoru.
We also made some amazing models of waka to represent the wonderful stories that we've been learning about during Matariki. We worked hard and used our perseverance to make and decorate the models.
Here is one of the stories, The Great Waka of Tama Rereti.
We had another fantastic day at the ASB on Monday. Tautoru really enjoy these days as we get to explore lots of different games and try out activities that are often new to us.
Dodgeball and Basketball were very popular. We have a number of students playing miniball this term and it was great to see these students share their knowledge and help others developing their skills. Lots of teamwork and kindness was on display!
Thanks to the parents that were able to help out for the day and check out seesaw posts for more picture of the students in action.
