Song of the River.

What a fantastic Whānau Day we had as our students came together in whanau groups across the school to collaborate, create, and move!

Our learning focus for the next wee while is on storytelling through dance and movement, listening and responding creatively to music.  For this whānau day we were inspired by the story of the journey of water.  We read the story below for inspiration.

We used the music from Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt - Morning to accompany our dance and movement, students explored how water transforms as it flows:

• A Gentle Start: Beginning as a simple trickle.

• Building Momentum: Flowing into a creek, tumbling over a waterfall, and becoming a rushing stream filled with a thousand little fishes.

• Winding Through Nature: Expanding into a river where ducks swim and cows drink.

• Passing Through the City: Navigating the busy wider river past factories, wharves, ropes, and cranes.

• Reaching the Ocean: Opening up into the wild sea where whales and birds sing.

Using core elements of dance such as pathways, levels, direction, and contrasting high and low energystudents worked to express these different water environments. Dancers joined in gradually to build the scene, starting with just a few students and growing into a full ensemble. It was really tricky to get some quality photos in motion but here a few snapshots. You can see our levels and pathways.

To wrap up the session, every group came together to showcase their final dance performance.  We  demonstrated wonderful teamwork, creative expression, and dynamic movement from start to finish!  You are in for a real treat in the coming weeks.

Shapes, shapes and more shapes.

 

When thinking of maths, our minds usually jump straight to counting, addition, and times tables. These are definitely at the core of our maths programme because they are fundamental skills that we keep building on,  however there is a whole side of mathematics that is just as vital and often a lot more fun to explore. It has been fun exploring and grouping our shapes to make different things. 

In the New Zealand Curriculum for Years 2 and 3, Geometry is all about helping children make sense of the physical world around them. It’s about touching, moving, describing, and building.

Here is a look at what your child is learning in the classroom.

For Years 2 and 3 Geometry focuses on three main ideas:

1. Shape Features: Recognising 2D shapes (circles, squares, triangles) and 3D objects (spheres, cubes, cylinders) by looking at their attributes—like straight edges, curved lines, and corners.

2. Transformation & Movement: Understanding how shapes turn (rotations), slide (translations), or flip (reflections), and noticing patterns or symmetry.

3. Position & Direction: Using spatial language (above, below, next to, clockwise, left, right) to navigate space.

At this age, children learn best by doing.   A child might learn the word "cylinder" from a card, but they only truly understand its geometry when they explore a cylinder and realise things like it can roll.  They also learn that it can’t roll sideways and this leads to further learning about attributes of 2D and 3D shapes. 

Geometry is actually everywhere in our day-to-day routine.   Here are some ways that you can reinforce our geometry learning at home. 

Obstacle Courses & Treasure Maps

Vocabulary related to space is key in the world of geometry. Map-making and directional games build strong spatial orientation and awareness.   We have had a very hands on approach to this, learning through doing as you can see in the above slide with our 'tarp grid'.

• Blindfold Navigator: Have your child guide you through the lounge using only directional words: "Take two steps forward, turn towards the couch, and step over the cushion."

• Draw a Map: Ask them to draw a map of their bedroom or the backyard. It doesn't need to be to scale, the goal is learning how 3D spaces are represented from a bird's-eye view.

The Great Shape Hunt

Instead of naming shapes on a piece of paper, hunt for them in 3D.

• In the Pantry: Challenge them to find three items that are spheres (oranges, passionfruit) and three that are cylinders (soup cans, paper towel rolls). 

• You can help them explore by asking questions like : "Why don't they pack cereal in sphere-shaped boxes?"

• On a Walk: Look for geometric features on road signs or houses. Focus on properties rather than just names: "Look at that stop sign.  Let's count its sides together!"

Build with Blocks (and Kitchen Containers!)

Playing with Lego, wooden blocks, or plastic containers naturally teaches spatial awareness.

• Deconstruct & Combine: Show them how two identical right-angled triangles can come together to make a square or rectangle.

• Shadow Matching: Trace around the base of different household objects (a mug, a block, a triangular box) on paper, then ask your child to match the object to its 2D "shadow" print.

Symmetry in Nature

New Zealand’s environment is full of natural geometric patterns.

• During outdoor play, collect fallen leaves, shells, or fern fronds (ponga).

• Fold a leaf in half to test for line symmetry, does one side mirror the other?

• Try making a symmetrical nature collage on the grass, where whatever is placed on the left side must be mirrored on the right.

When we see our children building, making with origami and other creative projects or even navigating the challenges of the playground, they are constructing a geometric understanding. They may not be talking about shapes but they are certainly noticing shapes and moving through space during everyday moments.  This gives our children a foundation that will serve them for years to come!  Learning is always happening through their play.  Our job might be to make those links for them using the vocabulary.  

Let us know what you notice in terms of these big concepts in your child's world at home.

Bring the Drama Llama !!

 Now initially this might start off sounding all about us adults however excited adults with new learning = exciting  classroom experiences !   

So what was this new learning ?  

You may have heard of or come across ‘process drama’.  Unlike traditional drama, process drama isn't about memorising lines, wearing costumes, or always necessarily performing on stage for an audience.  We were lucky as a staff to join one of our neighbouring schools in some professional development around Process Drama.  We were able to immerse ourselves into the experience of creating a world and ‘owning and living’ in what we had created.  

Our learning experience was a fusion of science and the arts.  The science absolutely sat within our hopes and dreams for Sustainability and our Whetukairangi Curriculum, which was exciting to think about.  It opened our eyes to some different contexts and approaches we could take to engage our students in drama across different curriculum areas.  There were so many links to oral language, writing, Positive Education, maths in mapping and perspective.  The opportunities that we could see were so exciting.  

So what did this actually look like: 

Teachers around a giant bit of paper drawing and creating a land including everything we thought was important and fun to have. We had to think about inhabitants, infrastructure and general survival.  We thought about all of the things we had to enjoy in life, hobbies, sports and special places that we frequent.  We thought on a serious note about power sources, health and safety and education too.  

By the end,  we had a super creative yet somewhat unrealistic land that was surrounded by ocean.  Every single landform known to man as well as a variety of public transport and systems were included !  We were totally invested and owning this land. 

There were no scripts or rehearsals. Instead, we worked together to create an imaginary land, creating our own story.  From this came big ideas to explore, problems to solve and perspectives to be considered.  

We were faced with a real problem.  We had run out of power.  There were varying degrees on different parts of our island but we would soon have none.  Smog and pollution were setting in and this was not looking good. We each chose a role of a person from this land and we had to stay in character pushing our perspectives and what we thought was important.  We had to make decisions for our people.   This was the interesting part and this is where the drama came in. As we went our story evolved. 

We completed activities like - staying in character but being in a cafe.  What was the conversations being over heard ? 

We had to front up and be problem solvers at a meeting called by the Mayor in response to their letter explaining our situation. 

Then came the science -  What was possible ?   We were presented with different strategies or approaches that had worked across the world.  Solar energy, wind power, recycling and reusing, matauranga and ancient wisdom.  We could have kept going for hours. 

This was our first session.  Excitement set in for us as we thought about how we could use this method for our arts celebration.  It is not a science focus but an imagination focus.   We are excited to see where this takes us but so far we feel as though this could be more authentically child centred and built around their stories.  

In process drama, children don't just listen to a story—they live it.  We will be taking ours a step further and adding music, dance and movement.

So what now ? 

• We are there to help guide the students into their imaginary world as a character.  

• We are there to facilitate discussion, group themes and of course help add the lights, camera action part of it. 

• We are there to help them create their messages and stories.   As we watched and observed our artists at work yesterday we soon realised that our next step would be 

For our Junior students, storytelling can sometimes feel abstract when confined to pencil and paper. Process drama gives children an experiential foundation before they ever pick up a pencil.

1. Building Narrative Structure: By acting out scenarios, students physically feel the rise and fall of a plot—identifying the beginning, encountering a problem, and working together toward a resolution.Developing Character Depth: Instead of just naming a character, children become them. They practice empathy by asking: How does this character walk? What are they feeling? What choice should they make next?

2. Expanding Vocabulary and Oral Language: Children hear and use new descriptive words naturally within the context of the drama. Speaking in role builds confidence in expressive language and storytelling.

3. The next part is telling our story through music, dance and movement.   

Connection to the NZ Curriculum

Oral Language - Students practice listening actively, expressing ideas, and adapting their voice for different roles and audiences during imaginary play.

The Arts (Drama - Developing Ideas) Children initiate, develop, and structure ideas in drama, using movement, gesture, and voice to express feelings and tell stories.

Movement and Music - We take on our messages and think about what they would sound like and feel like.  How would things be moving and changing over time and situation ?  This won’t be the end of the learning…..

There is Positive Education galore.  We will  be able to step into another person's shoes, become more self-aware of our bodies and space and our group collaboration skills. Our children will have contexts to negotiate solutions together and plenty of fun doing it.  We will be forming new connections too.  You will see us working together to take risks with movement and sound and we will be making sure we let each other shine !   We showed great flexibility when someone else drew in our perceived space and we were ok knowing there is no right or wrong and no single ownership.

What is it?