Being a Goal Setter and using Character Strengths

Our Learner Attribute for this term is I am a goal setter. We've spent time thinking about where we would like to take our learning next and what we will practise to get there. Reaching a goal involves practising specific skills like writing more sentences to write longer stories, but we also thought about what character strengths might help us. We often talk about how character strengths are like superpowers that we can use to help us achieve our goals.

Some of us have been using rākau music patterns as a Wake Up Your Brain activity and we wanted to challenge ourselves and perform at our school assembly. This was going to be a real challenge because we only had 3 sessions to get the item ready! What character strengths might we need?

Teamwork would be useful because we were working as a group and had to collaborate and share ideas, as well as contribute- everyone had to do it! Bravery would be very useful because we were performing in front of the whole school! Love of learning would also come in handy. We spent extra time practising at lunchtimes and some of us even took rākau home to practise because we were challenging ourselves to do even trickier moves with the rākau. Some people also used their Judgement because we had to think carefully and choose the challenge level that was best for each of us. Leadership helped us to understand that even if I am not at the front I can also be a leader from the back and support my group by helping to keep the rhythm.

How did we feel afterwards?

Sasha- I felt proud and happy because I had done the performance and last year I was too scared to get on stage.
Anneke- I felt excited because I had never played rākau before.
Nicolas- I felt happy and brave because I had practised and I did it!
Darragh- I felt proud because I felt happy that I went up in front of the whole school.

Inquiry The Earth, Our Home- Sorting and creating

Inquiry: Sorting and Creating

We have been doing lots of learning about how the sun, moon and earth work from space to create the changes that we see on earth like day and night. We are now sorting our learning and creating using different languages like dance, movie making and music to share what we've found out.

While some of us are rapping to a great tune about the moon or using dance to show day and night, others have been making movies. Here are some example of how we are growing our understanding about day, night, the solar system and how to share our new learning using movie making.

We've been using our Character Strength of Creativity!

In Tautoru we've been letting our creativity shine.

Inspired by the story of the The Beautiful Opps, we've been practising turning random things into pieces of Artwork. This involved us using our imagination to think of all the possibilities for Art.

Such as Blow-Dye-Blob Art with Scott

Stick Creatures, Bark Barkers and Leaf Monsters with James



And Scribble Creations with Ximena

This showed us that anything can be turned into something wonderful if we use our Creativity and Appreciation of Beauty. Even our Mistakes!

Operation Space Rover

In Taurtoru we've been tasked with a top secret operation; constructing a space rover.




Set to be deployed on Mars by 2020, it is our duty work together to plan and build a rover. This is a few of us hard at work.




Our supervisors Scott, James & Ximena have been impressed by our teamwork and our ability to share our ideas during the building process.

This is one project that has the potential to shape the future of human kind for years to come.

Over and out.
The Kids of Tautoru.

It's the Moon!

As part of our inquiry into the moon, the sun, and day and night we have been sorting and creating what we have learned. This group have written a rap to explain some of their new knowledge!

Check out the blog for more beats and pieces in the future.

Becoming a Digital Citizen at school

Digital technology has revolutionised our lives in the 21st century, expanding our ability to connect, collaborate and create in many new ways. Our year 3's have been learning about digital citizenship and what it means to have a school account so that we learn how to use digital technology responsibly at school.

We began by learning about how to stay safe with our personal information online. These are some of the videos that helped us to understand how to keep our information safe from Hector's World.

Our year 4 buddies from last year helped us to log in and learn about some of the apps that we will be using this year. We enjoyed catching up with them and next year we might be able to show our leadership and help others.

We learned about the importance of being responsible and respectful when communicating online as well. We practised our writing by sending kindness emails to each other. 

Over the year we will be learning new digital skills and using digital technology to support our learning. We will be collecting different badges to show our progress.

Learning about patterns using body percussion

As part of our maths programme students have been learning about patterns in music. We have been developing different patterns and learning to listen carefully to the pattern which which we then copy.



This week groups have been given three different coloured blocks and in teams decided on a movement, sound, or action for each colour. We have also been watching videos and learning about body percussion.



Teams are then able to rearrange the blocks into a simple musical score. Our next step is to share our patterns with another group so keep your eyes posted for future posts!