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!

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. 

Assembly: 1st July 2016

Thank you to our wonderful presenters!

What a fantastic assembly. See some of the highlights below...

Well done to everyone who received a principal award for connecting with others!

Experimenting with sound

In Tautoru, we have been experimenting with different sounds. We have been using chairs as drums and experimenting with  different instruments...

We have also been experimenting with different rhythms.

Standard unit for weight

In Maths this week we have been learning about the standard units we use to measure weight. We learnt about Kilograms and Grams. When we weigh ourselves we use Kilograms (KG's). Some of the things we figured out were...
- People weigh more if they have shoes on
- People might be heavier if they are taller
- People might be lighter if they are shorter
- People gain and lose weight which makes them lighter and heavier
- People might weigh more or less depending on the time of day and how much they have eaten or drunk.
- Of course, Chrissy weighed the most out of all of us!!
Watch our video to see some of our learning that took place this week. Enjoy!