We have lots of things to say !!

In Tautoru,  goal setting and reflection are key aspects of our programme.   We are always encouraging students to set personal writing goals that help them take ownership of their learning.  Goals focus on improving specific writing skills, such as vocabulary use or sentence structure or just being able to add as many details as they can.   There are many ages and stages of writing to be considered. We share our goals with each other and give feedback too.   Tautoru students can be writers as soon as they have something to say ! 

Goal setting needs to be taught well for it to be effective, purposeful and worthwhile.  As you know the best goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound and this really helps us all stay focused and motivated to improve.  You might be wondering how we do this. For us, writing is beginning to happen across the curriculum as it becomes a vehicle to express and share all kinds of learning.  Our writing programme teaches the skills to enable this.  Regular check-ins are built in and reflections help students monitor their progress towards their goals themselves and of course there is oodles of teacher support to make this happen.  We encourage students to find examples of where we have achieved our goals that day to make sure we have the ‘measurement’ .  

Here are some examples from today:

We celebrate successes after every session or two.  Successes help us build confidence that we are on the right track and it encourages a Growth Mindset because students begin to see the power of ‘YET’.  

We are nurturing a love for writing while supporting students’ individual learning journeys. Progress looks different for everyone.  It even looks quite different within a level and across levels.  What we do know is progress is being made !!  We look forward to sharing progress with you soon ! 

How can you help at home ?   -       “Writing floats on a sea of talk” 

Keep having those rich conversations,  keep reading to your children and together, talking and exploring words, creating collections of beautiful things that are a real talking point, showing gratitude and noticing those awe inspiring things on your adventures out and about and most of all let them see you being a reader and a writer.  

Our Place in Space - Term 4 Inquiry

 

In Tautoru we are absolutely fizzing with the endless possibilities for learning when it comes to Space and the Solar System.  

Through our Inquiry learning in Tautoru we aim to enhance our curiosity and interest in science.  The solar system captivates students' imaginations, sparking curiosity about space, planets, and night day.  This is a topic that the kids were curious about at the end of Term 3 and actually all the time it seems !! 

It is funny, we often find ourselves as teachers very conscious that we don't want to be rocking out the same contexts every year and space and dinosaurs are often what we experienced at Primary School despite being the most captivating and exciting for our kids. They bring a huge amount of prior knowledge and can make many connections across these contexts !

Exploring concepts such as gravity, orbits, and the conditions for life on other planets encourages students to think critically and ask questions.  We will also go a bit deeper learning about our star, the sun and the moon and how it impacts our environment.  Learning about the solar system connects across many different curriculum areas. Maths is a no brainer with many opportunities to measure, make patterns, learn about time, tides etc….. 

Our big ideas and deep understandings for this Inquiry are:

OUR STAR THE SUN, THE MOON AND THE SKY.

1. The Sun is the ultimate source of energy for life on Earth.

2. Earth's system is a small part of a solar system within the vast system of the universe.

3. We order the visible stars of the night sky in the patterns that our cultures have taught us.

4. Our position in space governs what celestial objects we can see. 

5. The change in relative positions of the Moon, Earth, and Sun determines the apparent change in the shape of the Moon.  

6. The way the Moon's gravity pulls on the spinning Earth causes the environmental pattern of tides.

Through our curiosity, questions and discussions about Earth’s place in the solar system we can make endless connections to our place in the world.  Tides and the ocean are definitely front and centre in our local curriculum so lots of opportunities there.  

COLLECTING FIRST IDEAS

The students worked in co-operative groups to brainstorm all they knew about Space.  Here are their first ideas and the wealth of knowledge they already bring to this inquiry.   This task also helps us identify any misconceptions we have.  

Keep watching for regular updates on this exciting Inquiry 

A festival of Chinese language!

  

September 22nd to 28th is Chinese language week. We were very keen to celebrate since we have a number of Mandarin speakers in our school community. Luckily, we had four expert teachers who joined us on the last day of term: Kurt, Clare, Yinjing and Ruotong. We are so grateful to them for sharing their language and culture with so much Zest and Creativity: xie xie! 

Here are some highlights from an action-packed morning of learning.

Aisha and Everette helped out with some role-plays. We practised saying 'xie xie' (thank you), 'ni hao' (hello), 'dui bu qi' (sorry) and other handy phrases.

Then we had a chance to do some writing. Kurt showed us how some Chinese words look like their meaning. This helps a lot when learning thousands of characters. 

We even got to act out some of the words. 'Zuo' means 'sit' and looks like two people sitting back to back on a bench.

Here is 'shui' (water), which looks like three gushing streams of water.

'Shan' is a mountain. This mountain has three peaks, with the tallest peak in the middle.

We had a go at writing the characters. It was fascinating also to hear about how the character for words like 'horse' have evolved from a literal picture of a horse into the stylised character that is used today.

Next, some music! Yinjing and Ruotong shared a beautiful, traditional song about the jasmine flower. We have been learning a lot about different kinds of musical instruments lately, but seeing and hearing the accordion played as something new for us.  

Finally, some crafting with Clare, who showed us how to make delicate paper flowers by folding and cutting paper. 

It took quite a lot of concentration, careful drawing and cutting to make the flowers.

Opening out the folded paper to reveal the flower was very satisfying! We will definitely be making more of these.

Thank you once again to our wonderful teachers. We are so fortunate to have parents in our community who share their expertise and passions so generously.