Whanau Day: Shona and Nic's Group

Last Friday was Positive Education Whanau day. We were in groups with others from Autahi, Tautoru, Matariki and Mahutonga. It was fun to work with our brothers and sisters and to make new friends.

Each Whanau group had five character strengths to unpack. Ours were Judgement, Perseverance, Social Intelligence, Honesty and Love.

 

We talked about Judgement which is thinking things through and examining them from all sides, without jumping to conclusions and then we played "Would You Rather?" It was fun!

We talked about Perseverance and how we work hard to finish things that we start. We shared ideas of times we have persevered- Cross Country running, swimming, writing, maths, etc.

We discussed Love, and then we helped each other to weave a heart and create a mobile which is hanging in Tautoru.

We talked about Social Intelligence. It is when you are aware of the motives and feelings of other people. You know what to do to fit in to different social situations, and you know what to do to put others at ease. We read the story, Knuffle Bunny Three and discussed how the girl in the story used her character strength of Social Intelligence. 

Lastly, we discussed the character strength of Honesty. We played a fun game called "two truths and a lie."

Let's Get Measuring

How far can our cars travel?

Maths is all around us. Some of us have begun to investigate measuring length using meters and centimetres. We made ramps, estimated the distance our cars would travel then launched our cars down the ramp to confirm our predictions.

Making estimations and predictions is a very important mathematical skill. Today we used centimetres and our rulers to check our estimations of how far the cars had travelled.

Sign Language in Tautoru

We have been learning how to sign! Check out the tab at the top of the blog for more videos and links for Sign.

The Year 3's have been working on signing their names and learning simple classroom language.





It has been amazing to watch how quickly the students learn to sign and many already mastered signing their name and are about to tackle the National Anthem.

KAHOOT IT !

Over the last couple of weeks we have been reviewing our learning in Te Reo by playing a game on Kahoot.



After swimming we are joined by the Year 4 students and we Kahoot It!



It is a very engaging and fun way to reinforce the Te Reo we are learning in class. It is an online game in which the students work in teams and answer questions posted by the teacher. The students then race the clock to lock in their answer to gain points.



This week we have been working on the following phrase

        E hia? How many?

E hia ngā ika?

E ____ngā ika.

Check out the blog for links to NZ Sign Language.

Drumming

This week we have started a new focus for the afternoons ..... Music.



The students will work with a different teacher each session and explore different musical elements. This is in preparation for our school wide performing arts celebration which is coming later in the year.



It is a fantastic opportunity for students to develop and learn new musical skills and strengthen character strengths such as, creativity, team work, perseverance, and kindness (especially when using the drums!).



The rotations are drumming, singing, rakau, and art responses to different musical styles.

Fom the Inside, Out! Understanding my Emotions makes me POWERFUL.

We have been continuing to explore our emotions during our Positive Ed morning this week. Today we read the story 'Kei te pehea Koe'? (How are you Feeling?). We practiced many different emotions to respond with in Te Reo like....

 

Today's focus was on identifying the things that make us feel a variety of emotions. We added ideas to a shared poster and created our own emotions book related to the characters from "Inside Out".

  

Being able to identify how we are feeling and the things that make us feel a certain way, enable us to be powerful across all aspects of our lives.

 

In a recent publication by Baumeister and Teirney called Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, they state that success (however you define it) tends to be accompanied by a couple of qualities. One of them being Self-Control. 

They go on to say that "one of the greatest obstacles to self-control is an inability to effectively manage our own emotions. To effectively manage our emotions, we first need to be able to identify them". 

When we can identify our emotions it helps us to choose effective thoughts and actions in a variety of situations.

The Epic Brain

We've been learning about our amazing brain! Ever heard the saying "Your brain is like an elastic band"? Well it's true! 

Take a look at the fabulous posters we created after we did some learning about our brain. We watched this video first and then created a piece of writing to explain why "Your brain is like an elastic band".

 

 

According to research by Carold Dweck, connectivity between neurons can change with experience. With practice, neural networks grow new connections and strengthen existing ones. 

  

These neuroscientific discoveries have shown us that we can increase our neural growth by the actions we take, such as using good strategies, asking questions, practicing, and following good nutrition and sleep habits.