"I got the Power"

We have been exploring our Learner Attribute - I am Powerful.  Our Learner Attributes are student-centered attributes that were designed to develop skills, attitudes and attributes neccessarty for success across academic and social-emotional learning.  

Our Learner Attributes focus on empowering students to take ownership of their learning and growth:

SO what are these Learner Attributes ? 

• I am a thinker

  This one focuses on both creative and critical thinking. Students are encouraged to build knowledge, engage in cycles of inquiry, ask big questions, and develop a growth mindset.  This recognises all types of thinking as well as the thinking process. 

• I am connected

  This attribute helps us create and nurture a strong sense of belonging, whānau/community engagement, and environmental awareness.  This means Students learn to collaborate with peers across age groups.  This ahppens naturally in the ways we work but also during times like whānau groups.   This is also about connecting and learning about our cultures, ethnicities and histories.  

• I am powerful

  This encourages learner agency, self regulation and building mana. Students learn to recognise their personal character strengths and strengths in others. This means they will be able to contribute positively to all groups they work in.   We were able to come up with 29 words that we could use instead of 'powerful' and these all came from our kids. 

I am a goal setter

This one focuses on independence, reflection, and goal setting. Students  participate in tracking their progress, talking and sharing their learning in a variety of ways.  It is great to see and hear our kids leading conversations about their learning steps like they will do,  during our up and coming Learning Celebrations.  These are celebratory but also future focused.  We try really hard to keep goals measureable and achieveable but lofty and exciting at the same time !  Goal setting happens in the academic and social and emotion spaces - across the whole curriculum. 

Maths Momentum !

 

We have had a great sunny start to Term 3.  We have launched straight into maths looking at all the things we need to know about numbers. We are focusing on how numbers work well together in teams.  

Suz's maths group has been looking at compatible numbers and Algorithms.  We have also had a refresh with tidy numbers and how to use them in our problem solving strategies.  We used our hundereds boards, Numicon blocks and place value blocks to explore and make compatible numbers to 100.  Our compatible numbers were 2 digit team players that made 100.  We know that the 2 numbers in the ones column need to equal 10. 

  

We have also been learning how to use an algorithm to solve problems. We are following these rules below to help us with the process.  We have had to use all that we know about place value. The hardest thing for us to get our heads around is when we have to re-group because we have made 'a new group of 10'.  

Hayley's maths have been learning about spider and fly and how to use this simple concept to get around a 100s board.  They have also been looking at place value and the make up of numbers so that we can use this knowledge to solve bigger problems. 

How you can help at home : 

1. Help read and write 3 and 4 digit numbers.  
2. Find teams of compatible numbers for different tidy numbers.  (A tidy number is a number that ends with 0)
3. Read letter boxes and add 2 together using an algorithm. 
4. Practise skip counting from all different numbers.   FOr example count in 10s starting at 12.  

Check out the website on your school report.  This has lots of ideas for maths at home.  

To support maths learning at home :

Hato Hone St Johns in Schools