Wednesday, 6 July 2016

Kandinsky inspired art.

In Scott and Chrissy's maths group we have been looking at the geometric art of Kandinsky. We designed our own patterns and transferred them to make a group art piece.


Eid Mubarak to Bukit Timah School



We are making connections with Bukit Timah School in Singapore. They have a day off for Eid today. We would like to wish them Eid Mubarak! 

Nicola's literacy group read and learnt a little bit about Eid ul fitr.

Plastic Free Peninsula Pizza and Movie night.


A message from Miranda Struthers...

July is Plastic Free Month and the Worser Bay School community has launched a ‘Plastic Free Peninsula’ campaign. Students, staff and parents are raising awareness about the plastic problem in the Miramar Peninsula coastal environment and are taking action to address the problem and reduce consumption, both at school and at home.

To kick off the campaign a movie and pizza night was held for the school community, showing short films about plastic consumption, its impact on the natural environment and personal stories about how individuals can make a difference. Students and parents were inspired by the event, and motivated to get involved in the campaign. 

On Sunday 3rd July, International Plastic Bag Free day, the school community held a beach clean-up around the Miramar Peninsula. Over 20 large sacks of rubbish were collected and some interesting items were uncovered including a welding mask, complete fishing rod, sailor’s washing machine and parts of an old washed up suitcase. The students then took the rubbish back to school to complete a waste audit of their findings. Hugo M  said "I'm surprised how much rubbish we found. I'm surprised we didn't see it at first till we looked closely, it was tangled in the bushes and wedged between the rocks". 

The Plastic Free Peninsula campaign will continue beyond July and the students are wishing to share the campaign with other schools, businesses and communities on the Peninsula. More activities are being planned in the months to come.
Raffle Prizes- thank you to Jacky for donating the water tank to the school
It's Plastic Free July Are you ready to take the challenge?


The PFP logo was revealed. Thank you to Hunter T who designed the crab and Catherine Hanham for putting this together. 

These are the movies that we showed at the movie night:

Here is a message for us from Melati and Isabel:



Monday, 4 July 2016

Visitor to Tautoru



















Today in Tautoru we had a visitor talking to us about the continent of Africa. We talked mainly about Empathy and what the difference is between New Zealand and Africa. Thank you Zoe - it was very interesting!

Sunday, 3 July 2016

It's Plastic Free July! PFP do a beach clean up!

It's Plastic Free July! To kickstart this event the Plastic Free Peninsula Group did a beach clean up at Worser Bay Beach... 
    


Message from Sophie Williams...

83 of us collected heaps of rubbish today, about 10 sacks full! 

The weirdest things we found were:
A travel washing machine
A welding helmet
half an old wooden suitcase
A bra
A fishing rod covered in tube worms.

Melissa won the prize for most collected
Edward won for unusual small washing machine
Amanda won for unusual Welding mask
Kaia found the suitcase!

Edward and Vicky tidied around a penguin nest. Edward said: "From the sound of it, you could hear babies - squeaks. There was heaps of rubbish around the nesting box: polystyrene, snack packets and heaps of cups".

Great work! So satisfying.

Thank you to all of the families that participated- a real team effort. Such a great turn-out (and so much rubbish collected!), Plastic Free Peninsula is thinking of holding them quarterly. 

Spanish Lessons: We have been learning days of the week and months of the year

Muchas Gracias to Maria! She taught us days of the week and months of the year in Spanish. Learn some of the Spanish Songs.
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday

Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

This is a new song that we have been learning:

Connections with Asia

A Note from Nicola...



















In August, I will be travelling to Singapore with 11 other educators across New Zealand. I have been connecting with teachers from Bukit Timah Primary School and our students have been starting to learn about Singapore. This week in Tautoru, we have started to write letters to the school and I will bring these over as part of a gift.

By the time our youngest students are in the workplace, the number of middle class in Asia will have increased to over 3 billion… 60% of the world’s middle class will be in Asia by 2030. Three of the four top economies in the world will be in Asia… 1 - China, 2 – USA, 3 – India, 4 – Japan.

New Zealand’s economy is increasingly reliant on our export markets in Asia. China is our biggest export market through our Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed in 2008. We also have FTAs with Korea and ASEAN countries with negotiations underway with India.

In New Zealand itself our demographics are changing. In the last 20 years our Asian population has grown from 3% to 12% and predicted to be 21% by 2038.

An audio visual from Asia New Zealand Foundation helps to explain the Asian Century and what it means for our students – Equipping your child to thrive in the Asian Century

To better prepare our children for their future we are currently exploring how we can develop students’ knowledge, skill and understanding of Asia and Asian cultures. 



Our students have generated some questions for Bukit Timah Primary School:


What kind of food do you eat?

Do you celebrate Christmas?

What do you celebrate?


Do you get awards for your good behaviour or your learning?


How many classes do you have? How many students do you have in each class?  

Where do you learn?

What do you learn?

Do you have a uniform?

What time do you start school?

What time do you end school?

What do you guys do for lunch? Where do you eat your lunch?

How many teachers do you have? Who are your teachers?


What languages do you speak?

Do you have technology? If so, what do you use?
What materials do you use for learning?

Why are some of your building shaped like flowers?

What kind of plants do you have?

What furniture do you have in your class? Do you have desks?


What games do you play?

What do you have in your view?

What type of playground do you have?

How big is your school? How many children are there at your school?

Do you go on field trips?

Do you have menus for lunch?

We have permission from Bukit Timah School to post this clip. 

Space Place - Learning Celebration

We had a great learning celebration -  Our students got to share all of their learning with whānau.  We also topped off our Inquiry with a v...