The Longest Bridge

This week teams in Tautoru worked on a team building challenge. Each team were given a limited amount of materials to build a bridge spanning two chairs.



The had 15 sheets of newspaper, 3 metres of string, tape, and two A4 card.



Their mission was to build a bridge that was able to hold a can of delicious chickpeas in place for longer than a minute.



It was a challenge and we had a number of interesting looking designs. The groups showed a lot of team work, problem solving, and perseverance !

Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori- Tōku Pepeha

As part of Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori, this week we learned and practised our Pepeha (introducing our whānau in Māori) with our Autahi whānau.

We know that learning something new can help our brains grow, so learning Te Reo Māori is a great way to help our brains get stronger.

Imagination and Innovation Inquiry: Māori Legends Art

As part of our inquiry, we are learning about how art can bring people together and spark our imagination. We have been exploring different Māori legends using the art of authors like Peter Gossage.

We have been learning the legends of How Maui Found his Father and The Magic Jawbone, Maui and the Sun, Ngāki and Whataitai and The Battle of The Mountains that tells the story of how some of the mountains around the North Island came to be. Here are some of the art we have created so far.

Maui and The Sun, by Peter Gossage

The Battle of The Mountains by Peter Gossage

How Maui Found His Father and The Magic Jawbone

The Legend of Ngake and Whataitai

Growth Mindset- Our Elastic Brain

We have been learning about how our brain makes connections. Our brain cells, called neurons, make connections when we try new challenges. The more challenges and practice we do, the more connections we build.

During whānau time with Autahi, we watched this great clip about our elastic brain.

We also talked about all the things that used to be a challenge but we have learned how to do. That's because our connections are now strong so we need new challenges. We thought about some of the challenges we have now and some we would like to have in the future.

Here are some of our ideas

Kia Kaha te Reo Māori!

Next week is Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori (Māori language week). In Tautoru we practise different phrases in Te Reo and learn how to respond. We try to do this every day as we are responsible for keeping our kupu  (spoken word/language) alive. The theme this year is - Kia Kaha te Reo Māori - Let's make the Māori language strong!

Everyone can help strengthen our language. It just takes a few words at a time, a few minutes a day and it's the perfect opportunity to do some learning together as a family! 

Each week in Mahuru (September), our children will post up a new kupu challenge. It would be ka rawe (awesome) if you can all try it out at home...send us in a picture or video to share on our blog!

Here we go! Our first Mahuru challenge is ...

Kei te pēhea te āhua o te rangi?

(How's the Weather)

   

SLCs: A Celebration of Learning

This week Tautoru was buzzing as students shared their accomplishments and new learning goals with whanau. Student Led Conferences are a wonderful opportunity for our children to celebrate their learning successes so far (positive accomplishment) and to identify new goals or challenges in their learning.

In the weeks leading up to SLCs we spent some time reflecting on goals we had set earlier in the year. It was really exciting when we realised that we had achieved so much since setting those goals. We identified that drawing on our strengths of Love of Learning, Curiosity, Perseverance and using a Growth Mindset helped us to achieve these great milestones in our learning. 

SlCs are also a great way for students to share with whanau their passions, interests and the things that excite them at school (positive engagement)! We all showed Leadership during our conferences and we looked like we were having a fun time.

Here are some of our own thoughts about SLCs:

"The Treasure Hunt was fun because I got to show mum and dad some music and Growth Mindset videos".

"I like that we get to share what our goals are with our parents and that we are able to show them a few things we can do now that we couldn’t do earlier in the year".

"I really liked it because the Treasure Hunt was fun. My mum liked learning about Growth Mindset".

Buddy reading with Autahi

We popped into Autahi today to share some of our favourite books with the Autahi team.



It is fantastic to see the confidence in all of the students to share their reading and to also listen in on conversations about snakes, nests, and the characters in the stories.



Thanks Autahi for being great buddies.