This term we are developing our soccer skills. We are working with a group of professional soccer players that are kindly sharing their knowledge with us.
We started our first session on Thursday and worked on dribbling the ball with two feet and keeping it close to our body.
It is a great opportunity for us to work with different people at school and build on our large ball skills at the same time.
This week we have been finding information about earthquakes and how to be prepared in case we are in an earthquake. We already know a lot of what to do when there is an earthquake but it's always good to remind ourselves so we feel confident and prepared.
We watched some funny clips from the Shake Out website like this one:
We did some writing about how to stay safe when there is an earthquake.
Some groups did research projects about earthquakes as well.
We have begun to explore patterns in algebra. This week some of us used the ideas of supermarket displays to work out how a pattern can grow. We had to work out how many cans in total would be needed to make a display 10 rows high. Then we had to work out what the rule is that makes the pattern grow evenly. It was super tricky. We will keep practising to help our brains grow new connections about how patterns are formed.
We have also been learning about function patterns and how to use a table to find the pattern
Next Wednesday is our athletics day and the weather has been so good we've begun to practice our skills: quoits, vortex, sprints and long jump. On Friday we will be heading to the beach to have a final practice before the big day. We have been showing our perseverance and growth mindset by having a go and learning new skills.
Here we are practising the vortex, quoits and long jump:
In Week 9, Term 3, we had the Parent Workshop on Maths Learning. As I said, we are very proud of our Maths academic results. In 2017 a colossal 86% of our children were at, exceeding or well exceeding curriculum expectations in Maths for their year level. And we are tough on our judgments, as the reviewers from the Education Review Office noted in their feedback to us! But that doesn't mean we rest easy. We have never known so much about how students learn - thank you to the inventors of MRI scanning technology.
All of our teachers are undertaking Maths professional development through Stanford University - focussed on the latest research and thinking in Maths education as to where and how you get the biggest shifts in achievement. The Board recognises the importance of ongoing teacher development and, as a consequence, Nicola was awarded a study grant this year, yes - you guessed it - focussed on Maths. Nicola and Ximena have also been selected to present at the largest national educators' conference ULearn these upcoming holidays, which we are really proud of. (And their session is booked out!)
So we were very excited to have the opportunity to share our ongoing learning and thinking with many of you last week. We started with a little activity - asking parents to simply answer this question:
BEFORE: What did Maths mean to you at school? (3 words)
Then at the end of the interactive workshops we asked this question:
AFTER: What does Maths learning look like for kids at WBS? (3 words)
Please find the first and second Word Cloud results below:
This was really great and informative feedback for us, and I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up on a screen in Auckland at ULearn sometime soon as part of a presentation!
If you couldn't make it, you may find this Jo Boaler Ted Talk interesting. Or What our Children Think.
On Monday Tautoru visited the ASB Centre for a day of sport! We had the most fantastic day. Each Base Group started on a different rotation; floorball, tennis, athletics and ball skills.
We had to use a variety of strengths throughout the day. Some us need to call on our strength of perseverance to get us through a challenge. Zest, love of learning and Teamwork to name just a few!
There were lots of highlights from the day. Many of us loved the game Plants vs Zombies and the activity where you had to throw ribbons in the air with a partner and try and catch them before they hit the ground! For many of us it was our first time playing Tennis and boy was it a CHALLENGE.
Head over to Seesaw to read some of our thoughts about our day at the ASB Centre. Thank you to all our parents who came to give us a hand.
Scott and Anna's literacy groups meet this week to share and develop our Te Reo Maori. It was a great opportunity for students from Tautoru and the seniors to spend time together to establish new friendships and practice giving directions in Te Reo Maori.
The students created grids with starting points and goals and then directed the other team towards the finishing line. We had lots of fun and we plan to do more next term so keep an eye out for future posts.
