The helping circle

Here is an example of what a helping circle looks like in Tautoru. Children are working together to help each other with different aspects of their writing such as spelling, punctuation, details in writing and choosing the right words.

Helping Circle: Student Voice

Today we asked our students about the "Helping Circle"... 

This is what they said...

Kate: In the helping circle, you help each other. I find it helpful because someone is helping me.

Edward: The helping circle is cool because everyone lets everyone in the circle (everyone is included).

Leola: The helping circle is very good. By helping each other we put more detail in our writing. I ended up writing lots more.

Dylan: The helping circle is good as it helps you to learn new stuff and listen to other people’s ideas.

Adam: The helping circle gives me ideas. For example, if we had to write about fishing, other people might know more about fishing and they can share their ideas. Today I asked Ollie if I could piggy back ideas for my writing. He said, “yes”.

Hunter T: The helping circle helps me to spell words. I added more adjectives today.

Griffin: In the helping circle, I know that I can get a pencil and start adding onto my story. I gave Ridley advice to make his writing shorter. (The task was to retell a story in 4 sentences).

Izar: The helping circle helps me to write and helps me to concentrate.

Charlotte: The helping circle helps me to know what I’ve done and I can give ideas to people who don’t have ideas.

Liam: In a helping circle, you get to connect with different people and it’s interesting to see what they do in their writing. We can make changes or cross stuff out.

Jupiter: The helping circle is a good activity for people. It is a good way to learn new words that people use.

Kirsty: The helping circle helps me to listen to other people’s descriptive words . I can use them in my writing. It helps me to spell the whole of the word. Raffy helped with spelling today. I could help her too. She showed me how to skip lines.

Rim: In the helping circle, some people give me inspiration. They tell me their stories. While we are reading, we are correcting.

Ridley: The helping circle helps us to spell words we get stuck on.

The Helping Circle

We have been reading a poem called, "Our Town" by James K Baxter. This week we will be writing our own version of the poem. As a group, we brainstormed places that we could write about and then we went off to work on our own brainstorms for our poem about our chosen place. 



At the end of our writing session we worked in a sharing circle. We read our brainstorm to a buddy and they read theirs to us. This is a great opportunity to edit and improve what we have written.  




Students have been helping each other to brainstorm what they can see, smell, touch, feel and taste in their chosen place. 

This links with our school focus about being connected. 

This is the poem that our students have been reading:

OUR TOWN

By James K Baxter

The town was usual enough; it had

A creek, a bridge, a beach, a sky

Over it, and even a small tin church

I never went to. My brother, my cousins and I

Did what boys do- dozed in the hot

Schoolroom, made bows and arrows, dodged the mad

Boat builder, crept like rabbits through the black

Under-runners with a weak torch,

Burnt dry rushes, wrestled or swam

Doing nothing important.

Naughty Animal Writing

This is our helping circle. We read our work to one another to see if we need to make changes. Our buddies can help us. We listen to our buddies so that we can get ideas for writing. We can make changes if we need to and we learn more about language.

We watched a movie about Brian (the sheep) walking in  the Marlborough Sounds. 

Brian was snatched by a naughty weka, never to be seen again!

This inspired us to write about naughty or funny animals...

Dora 
By Clem
One day my cat went under the house. There was a door that led under the house. My cat was scratching. My Parents got some food so Dora  would   come out of under the house, but it did not work.  So we tried meat, but that did not work. My mum had to go under to get her out.

Mini 

By Nikora

One day when I went to my friend’s house we played outside. We went inside and right in front of the door was Mini the dog. He jumped up on me and didn’t stop licking me on my face. I wanted Mini to stop but I couldn’t open my mouth.

My Cat 

By Finlay

One day my cat had escaped from my house. She ate a dead bird. I was very mad at her because she ate the disgusting dead bird. It wasn’t good at all. Then she ate another one. I was so mad that I nearly exploded.

The Weka
By Angus W
The weka stole my favourite toy motorbike.  I had to buy another one. The new toy is even better. It is remote control.  

Naughty Animal 
by Marnie

Nic and the awesome sheep called Brian went on a adventure. They saw a naughty, naughty weka and he scuttled over to Brian. Brian wanted to take a photo with Mr Weka. So Brian got ready for his photo. The weka started scuttling over to him...

What really actually happened to Brian?

Mr Mouse 

by Liam

Mum was frantically opening the draws. I could see mum reaching for the peanut butter jar. She went off to wash her hands. I walked forwards, just then two sneaky eyes approached. Then it scuttled forward. It had four legs, a pointy nose and long teeth. It was a mouse! It ate all of the peanut butter. ‘’MUM!’’ I screamed.

The Duck
By Cooper
The duck stole my train. I loved it. The duck lived very far.

Naughty Worms 
By Leola

Mum was planting broccoli in the garden on a sunny calm day. “Mum, what are you doing?” I screamed from the bathroom.

“I’m planting!!!!” Mum responded.

A few days later…”Aaaaaaaaaaaaarghhh.” Mum shouted.
Then I came… “what’s wrong?” I asked.

“These worms are munching in our broccoli.”

The Weka
By Olivia
The weka stole my bag. I got it back. Then I got the weka some food from home. He ate the whole packet.