Positive Education - Games

On Wednesdays we have some Autahi children and some year 4 buddies come in to Tautoru to work with us. This afternoon as part of our inquiry into play, we designed a game together with our buddy, then tested it. Finally, we were able to teach it to another buddy pair which was lots of fun!

It is nice for us to connect with other children across the school and great to see all of the positive relationships and connections being developed.

Kids Led Learning

This week for Kids Led Learning (KLL) we have been making mazes for a marble to go along. Will even put a little place to store your marble in his maze!

We have been making some rubbings of different things like leaves, sandpaper, shells, wood cuttings and coins to see what they look like, which ones work better and then making them into a picture.

We have been secret squirrels, spotting people who have been using their learner attribute of being connected and giving them a little certificate of thanks.

Maths

We are learning to read 3 and 4 digit numbers using place value and playing cards.

We are also learning about shapes and drawing pictures using them.

3D Cube Drawing Workshops

Some students in Matariki and Mahutonga were so inspired by their Maths learning that they ran a workshop on 3D shapes with Tautoru kids.

Megan: We taught year 1s, 2s and 3s to make a cube tower. They did it really well. They persevered a lot. It felt weird to see how tricky it was for them but it was cool when they finally worked it out. It made me feel good that I could help other people and give back to the school.

Ruby: The kids were really nice and did their best! I had to use perseverance and kindness. Sometimes the kids (and sometimes me) found it challenging. It can be quite hard to explain. I had to use courage because it can be nerve wracking. I thought that they might not listen. It was fun and would love to do it again. It is good to help others to try new things.

Poems

What features of poetry can we find in this beautiful poem "Otaki" by Laura Ranger? She was only 7 years old when she wrote this poem! We worked in buddies, going through the poem line by line, and now we are going to write our own poems too.

Sleeping Tigers

It was so hot yesterday after lunch, that we lay down like sleeping tigers to rest our bodies. We did some relaxing breathing and focused on resting our bodies.

Positive Education

This week on Wednesday for Positive Education, we worked with our buddies to share ideas about the monsters we created last week. We talked about what sharing ideas, acknowledging others and combining our ideas looks like.

We had to collaborate and decide on our monster's favourite food, games they like to play, who their friends are and where they live.

We are getting to know lots of the children from Autahi, Mahutonga and Matariki.

Games

At the end of last week we brainstormed all the things that we would like to put into our game- materials, type of game, where to play, instructions, etc. And then on Tuesday we had to collate our ideas and start to make our game.....exciting!!!!

 So here we are starting to make our games.


Great teamwork and creativity going on this week. We are looking forward to playing them and seeing if they work.

Treasure Maps

In Maths this week we have been learning about maps and directions. We have learnt about coordinates and how a map shows North, South, East and West. Some of us have made treasure maps and some have learnt how to give directions to show somebody where something is.
 
We are going to put some treasure in a secret place and another group has to follow the directions to find it.

We have played a version of Battleships to practise naming and finding coordinates.

KLL

Today at Kids Led Learning time one of the activities we could choose was Pointillism, where we could make a piece of art using dots.

Pointillism is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of colour are applied in patterns to form an image.

Have a look at some of the pieces of art we made.



Did you know.....Georges Serat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism.

Wake up your brain

What changeable weather lately!! We prefer to be outside at this time of the year, so it is good to use some yoga or GoNoodle exercise routines to use up some of our wriggles and "Wake up Our Brain" on the days we have to stay inside!!

What a great way to start the day.

ASB

On Monday, Tautoru and Autahi visited the ASB centre. We had a rotation of Futsall, Athletics, Ball skills and Floorball, and our skills are improving all the time.

Mae's favourite activity was Ball skills because she loves playing Dodge Ball.

Eddie's favourite was Futsall, because they learnt new skills and then at the end they got to play a game.

 

Lucy's favourite was Floorball because you could "whack" the ball with the stick.

Freddie's favourite was Floorball, because you got to run and hit the ball all the time, and he was confident playing the game.

Isabella W's favourite was Floorball because she loves hitting the ball with the hockey stick.

We were very proud of all the children who remembered their manners, used teamwork, perseverance, kindness, bravery and zest. 

The Great Game Challenge- Game Design

This term we have inquired into how play and games can help us to learn. We have discovered that games can help us to collaborate, connect and also learn physical skills like different sports games or strategies and facts like some board games. We also make friends and use problem-solving skills when we play together. Most importantly, games challenge us and they are fun!

Now it's time for...

We will become game designers by creating games for others to play using the Design Thinking process.

Here we are during the beginning phases of the process as we decided who we would create the game for and what they would need in a game. 

 We will keep you posted on our progress.

Innovation and Imagination- Fairy Tales and the Hero's Journey

The hero's journey describes a storyline that is very common in many stories we read, including many legends and fairy tales.

We have been learning how to use the hero's journey to innovate a fairy tale by changing some of the characters and events from the story to write our own version of a familiar storyline. You can come into Tautoru to read fantastic tales such as "The Three Little Werewolves" or "Red Riding Eraser" and their adventures that might remind you of some stories you know well.

Working with Coordinates

During maths, we have been exploring different ways to describe directions and coordinates. We are learning about finding our way to and from places, describing locations, reading maps and some of us have explored compass directions as well.

We have also made links to our inquiry about learning through play. We have been using coordinates to play Battleship on paper. We had to sit back to back sometimes so our buddy wouldn't see the grid. This game will help us when we design a map for a very special mission next week.