New Addition - Online Math Tab!

You may have noticed that our Blog has a new tab....It's our "Online Math" tab. It sits right underneath our site photo (see below)

Anyone with a school Gmail account can now access "Maths Hub" via our blog, which is an online tool we use at school to learn and practise math.

On Math Hub there are video lessons for each strategy we learn at school. There are games to help us practise our new strategy too. Math Hub has lots of reseources for areas such as Statistics, Geometry, Measurement, etc.

Last week Shona and Susie's math group had a go at "Computer Math" (with help from Nicola). Through our student and Tautoru Gmail accounts we followed links in an email related to our group focus for the week to "Learn It", "Practise It" and "Prove It".

First we watched a video that gave us a lesson on our strategy for the week.

   

Then we played some games that helped us practise the strategy.

Once we felt confident using the strategy we had to PROVE we understood it by solving some problems on Seesaw.

We saw some great problem solving and enjoyed seeing all the strategies people came up with to solve each problem.

Remember if you are in Shona and Susie's math group and you feel like keeping up the practise at home, you can access lessons and games via your student email.

Keep your eyes on Seesaw to see all the great strategies we will be learning and sharing with you at home :)  

Muscles

As part of our inquiry into the power of the body we have been learning about muscles.



We drew outlines of our bodies and then labeled the different muscles groups.

Body Riddles

We have been learning to write riddles. During literacy today we shared our riddles with Shona's literacy group. They were awesome at guessing!



Here are some examples

What Am I?

I was in a train when this was what I thought.
How do you think?
How do you write?
How do you do things like drink up sprite!?





What Am I?

I live near your spleen
and spray your food with green
I'm connected to your oesophagus
but not exactly seen.


What am I?

These organs come in two
They're like your intestines
But they make you do wee
But you can never have nine.





What Am I?

I help you think
I help you to move
I help you to blink
I help you to groove.



What Am I?

Sometimes it's a pain
(when it hurts)
It helps you to grow
If you don't have it you couldn't
taste, smell, write or think.

Epic Week of Dress Up.

HELLO!

We have the EPIC WEEK OF DRESS UP coming up next week (Week 6) from Tuesday - Friday.

The different dress ups are....

Come dressed up next week:

Tuesday - SUPERHEROES

Wednesday - ANIMALS

Thursday - FAMOUS PEOPLE

Friday - PYJAMAS (and ORANGE DAY for Year 5/6s!)

This is optional. We are doing this because it is fun, it makes us feel free, and we love dressing up! It also helps our Wellbeing because it gives us an option to have fun and dress up together.

      By Evie, Caitlyn and Kate.

TUESDAY - SUPERHERO

WEDNESDAY - ANIMALS

THURSDAY - FAMOUS PEOPLE

FRIDAY - PYJAMAS (or ORANGE DAY for Y5/6s)

Wellbeing workshop

Wellbeing Workshop.

Thanks so much to all the parents who came to the Wellbeing Workshop and participated with such enthusiasm and energy. What a buzz there was in the room with all the character strength discussions, the breathing exercises to enhance positive emotions, looking at Kaizen steps to break down the goals for a positive purpose, recognising the benefits of positive relationships when solving maths problems, being positively engaged by working collaboratively to construct a house, understanding the schooldocs, recognising the advantages of exercise and meditation for positive health and accepting the challenges involved in positive accomplishment when using chop sticks to move around a range of strangely shaped objects. Plus all the motivational speakers and discussions.

It sure took a while to unwind from the excitement and get off to sleep that night, but so positive to be realising the message is reaching the children from both home and school.

Thanks for coming!

Kei te pehea te ahua o te rangi?

We are learning this phrase about the weather in Te Reo ...

Kei te pehea te ahua o te 

rangi? 

(How's the weather?)

Here are some videos of some keen Te reo speakers modelling to us how we can ask and answer this question.

Kei te hauahu (windy) ...can you tell?

 

Kei te makariri (cold)

We know lots of other terms to describe the weather. Ask us at home. We'd love to teach you some :) 

More news from Emelie in Singapore.

Here is an awesome story of Emelie diving and swimming in Singapore.

Being in the Now

Mindfulness is a big part of how we set ourselves up for a great day at school. In the mornings (especially) we like to start our day the way we hope to finish it....

positive 
                                awake 
                     calm                                   alive
                                       successful 

Mindfulness helps us to be present. It promotes positive health.

In Tautoru we have been taking some time to listen and tune in to what our bodies are saying.

We have been doing some breathing exercises that enable us to focus on how our bodies are feeling and where our thoughts are.

As we breathe in and out we let go of any feelings of worry, nervousness, agitation or stress. We just let them go.

Instead we think of how light our mind and bodies are and how that makes us feel.

We begin to think about what's coming up next and how we would like to feel about our day at school.

Spending this time tuning in to ourselves and our feelings is a part of the day that we really enjoy.

We'd love to see you at our Parent Workshop on Wellbeing and Positive Education next week - Tuesday 22nd August, 6.45pm. It will be a chance to find out what we do at school to promote positive wellbeing and health and why it's so important to us.

 

  

Astrid and Helen Visit Tautoru

We were really lucky to have Astrid and Helen come and visit us today in Tautoru. They spent some time with us to help us get to know about the human body and its organs better. We loved having them come and visit us. Thanks so much!

 

First we got into teams. There were Brain, Heart, Kidney, Digestive and Lung teams. In our teams we had to match facts about our organ from an envelope. 

 

   

Then we thought up some of our own facts to go with our organ. We also wrote down some fabulous questions to find out more about our organ.

 Some of our fantastic questions were:

-Why do we have two kidneys?
-What would happen if one of our kidneys stopped working?
-Do animals have the same heart as a human?
-Why does the heart have so many tubes?
-What do your kidneys actually do?
-What makes your heart beat?
-Is the small intestine connected to the large intestine?

Peace!

This week is Peace Week. Shona and Susie's writing groups did some wonderful writing using our senses around what peace looks, smells, tastes, sounds and feels like.

Peace smells like delicious cookies.
Peace tastes like water.
Peace looks like me and my mum hugging each other.
Peace sounds like crashing waves.











Peace looks like the sunny beach.
Peace smells like chocolate lollipops.
Peace tastes like creamy ice cream.









Peace looks like shiny, glittery stars.
Peace smells like fresh and colourful flowers.
Peace tastes like sticky raspberry cake.
Peace feels like wet rivers.









Peace looks like seeing the world for the first time as a baby.
Peace smells like the wind.
Peace tastes like strawberries dipped in chocolate.












Peace looks like a waterfall splashing down on rocks.
Peace smells like fresh sparkling lemonade.











Peace looks like fresh air blowing around.
Peace tastes like vanilla ice cream.

Telling the Time

We have been learning all about TIME in maths. The last two weeks have been spent recognising HANDS on the clock and how long a minute and an hour are.




We have tried lots of activities to help us understand how long a second and minute are. We are now making our own clocks and learning to read times to the HOUR and times HALF PAST the hour.


Here are some links you can have a look at at home to help with learning about the TIME.

Hip Hop Tick Tock

Telling the Time

Peace week - A Recipe for Peace

This week is Peace Week! The writers in Wanwan and Scott's literacy group have been creating recipes for peace.



Peace burger

Mash 3 deep breaths.
Squash in a rainbow.
Squeeze some calming juice.
Fry a tablespoon of quiet.
Chop in a couple of forest walks.
Add some fresh air.
Pile up some sunbathing.
Add 8 cups of friendships.
Sprinkle a gram of positivity.
Stir in 50 mls of meditation.

Fry over a low heat for 30 mins and enjoy with your favourite splash of communication.



A Recipe For Peace

Pour in some sun.
Combine two kilos of a peaceful day.
Mix in a lot of sleep.
Slice into a bowl your favourite movie.
Sprinkle with a pinch of forgiveness.
Grind a spoonful of positivity.
Mash a handful of hugs.

Slowly BBQ over a sunny weekend with friends and family.

Enjoy your peace.



PEACE

Mix calm powder into a bowl.
Sprinkle peace signs over the powder.
Slice some rainbow light.
Add a bit of sunny powder.
Drop a lot of cheese right into it.
Slowly heat a cup of forgiveness.
Shake a spoonful of compromise into the mixture with a pinch of listening.

Boil in a bag of positivity and leave to combine over 2 weeks.
Enjoy with your favourite friends and family.




My Peace Recipe

Splash in a spoon of fresh air into a small bowl.
Microwave some sunshine and then add it to the bowl.
Squeeze in a rainbow.
Sprinkle some forgiveness and add a spoonful of positivity.
Pour in a cup of good listening.
Grind some compromise and communication.

Slowly BBQ in the sun by the beach with fresh water.






Peace Pie

Base.

Roll to a quite place.
Mix a dash of sunlight.
Sprinkle in a rainbow.
Smooth over some snow.
Slice in good music.

Topping.

Rapidly mix some wind and shake some forgiveness.
Add a pinch of good communication.
Boil a hug or two.

Start a peace fire, add the rain, and slowly cook overnight.
In the morning try it out with friends.

Inquiry about our body organs.

We used collaboration, perseverance, growth mindset and curiosity to work out where all the organs of the body go. We used books, asked questions and looked at posters to find the information we needed to complete the task. Come into school and have a look at them around the room.

Amanda came to visit to teach us about swallowing.

Amanda came and talked to us about swallowing. We learnt about our mouth, larynx, our trachea and lungs, our oesophagus and stomach. We learnt what happens if food goes into our lungs and how our larynx vibrates when we make some sounds when we are talking.

Our vital organs

As part of our inquiry into the body we have created models showing where our vital organs live.



We worked together as a team and used various objects from the classroom to represent the heart, liver, kidneys, along with a host of other organs.

Helping circle

We have been trialling using a helping circle at a different time in writing. We do our planning picture  and then have a helping circle. Then we can share our ideas with a buddy, help each other with some of the sounds we need for the words we want to write and also think about the goal we want to focus on when we are writing. It is helping us to feel better about our writing.

Inquiry about our "Joints in our Body".

Today we investigated to find out "What is the point of a joint"?

We made joints out of straws, sticks, ping pong balls, playdough, wool, ice block sticks and rubber bands. We identified where the joints are in our body and we looked around the school for other mechanisms that have joint like actions.

Did you know, the door has three joint like mechanisms....the handle, the hinge and the door stopper.

Did you know an ipad, chrome book and laptop have joint like mechanisms?

Did you know the toilet has a joint like mechanism on the seat and lid?

Buddy reading.

We have done a great job with buddy reading and reading to ourselves since we got back to school this term. All that holiday reading has paid off. 

Great attitude everyone! And thanks parents for all the support with keeping the reading going.