Transition Days

We have been having a great time in Tautoru getting to know each other and our new base group teachers. 

Today we had to fill in a chart which was "All About Me", with something I am proud of, something I would like help with next year and something I would like to know more about.

We will use these to inform our learning for next year.

Last Friday we made flowers to decorate our classroom ready for next year. We used pastels to blend our two favourite colours. We worked with buddies to help follow the instructions and the cutting out.

Transition Day- Year 3 learning alongside Year 4 and 5: Portraits

On Friday we had a transition day. the Year 3 students spent a day in the Matariki/ Mahutonga space. We had a chance to get to work with students and teachers that we will be learning alongside next year. 

We did an Inquiry into Portraits. We looked at some famous portraits and looked at similarities and differences between these. We did an investigation into the Maths of the face, thinking about proportions. 

Here are some of our artworks:

Positive Education - Games

On Wednesdays we have some Autahi children and some year 4 buddies come in to Tautoru to work with us. This afternoon as part of our inquiry into play, we designed a game together with our buddy, then tested it. Finally, we were able to teach it to another buddy pair which was lots of fun!

It is nice for us to connect with other children across the school and great to see all of the positive relationships and connections being developed.

Kids Led Learning

This week for Kids Led Learning (KLL) we have been making mazes for a marble to go along. Will even put a little place to store your marble in his maze!

We have been making some rubbings of different things like leaves, sandpaper, shells, wood cuttings and coins to see what they look like, which ones work better and then making them into a picture.

We have been secret squirrels, spotting people who have been using their learner attribute of being connected and giving them a little certificate of thanks.

Maths

We are learning to read 3 and 4 digit numbers using place value and playing cards.

We are also learning about shapes and drawing pictures using them.

3D Cube Drawing Workshops

Some students in Matariki and Mahutonga were so inspired by their Maths learning that they ran a workshop on 3D shapes with Tautoru kids.

Megan: We taught year 1s, 2s and 3s to make a cube tower. They did it really well. They persevered a lot. It felt weird to see how tricky it was for them but it was cool when they finally worked it out. It made me feel good that I could help other people and give back to the school.

Ruby: The kids were really nice and did their best! I had to use perseverance and kindness. Sometimes the kids (and sometimes me) found it challenging. It can be quite hard to explain. I had to use courage because it can be nerve wracking. I thought that they might not listen. It was fun and would love to do it again. It is good to help others to try new things.

Poems

What features of poetry can we find in this beautiful poem "Otaki" by Laura Ranger? She was only 7 years old when she wrote this poem! We worked in buddies, going through the poem line by line, and now we are going to write our own poems too.