Storytelling workshops

We had a special visitor at school on Wednesday. Apirana Taylor is a storyteller, an artist, a muscian and even a magician! He entertained us with stories and shared many of his instruments that he uses to help tell his stories.

In response to his stories we joined forces with the students from Autahi and worked on a variety of workshops around story telling.



There were drama workshops retelling the Maori creation story. This group shared their piece to an audience in the afternoon.



Another workshop worked on retelling the story of Maui and the Sun in a Kamishibai style. Which is a Japanese form of story telling

Puppet Pals was a popular workshop and students retold the story of Ngake and Whataitai, the taniwha of Wellington.









We also had students creating paper puppets and comic strips retelling Maori stories. So great to spend time with Autahi to build our relationships and also so awesome to teamwork, kindness and creativity in action.

What is your favourite ...... ?

In maths over the last week we have been investigating statistics. The students have really enjoyed developing their ideas, categorising objects, and finding out more about each other.





On Tuesday students worked in pairs to think of a question to ask people about what some of their favourite things were. We had favourite toys, birds, and even vegetables.



Later on in the week we will create pictographs to display our work and then hopefully share these onto seesaw. So please comment if you notice a post!

Inquiry Art

As part of our inquiry this term we have begun creating art inspired by the travels of Kupe, local stories of the Taniwha of Wellington harbour, and how Maori built Pataka to store food and Taonga.



Base groups have taken a theme and worked collaboratively on creating an art in response to the stories and our learning in Inquiry.



It has been great to see students share their ideas, negotiate on colours and then work on completing their work.



Students have created some great pieces that we hope will be up and ready to go for assembly this week. It will be great to get a big crowd in for the unveiling.



Keep your eyes posted for more blog posts.

We are Exploring - Technology and Travel in the Pacific

Did you know that the voyages of ancient sailors in the Pacific are like our explorations of space? These brave explorers traveled using the stars and signals from nature to help them discover new lands, including Aotearoa.

Source "Sailing The Pacific" ©Learning Media.

We've learned that signals like driftwood, clouds and birds would help them to know where new land was. They had no maps but used the stars as maps to guide them.

Their sails were woven from plants and they made lots of other things to carry things that they needed. We spent some time weaving to help us think about some of the things we could make, too.

Inquiry Learning We Are Exploring at the Wellington Museum

As part of our Inquiry Learning we visited the Wellington Museum. We learned about the history of our place and some of our stories. From the story of Kupe discovering Aotearoa and the many other stories around Wellington Harbour that are part of it, to the legend of Ngake and Whataitai. These stories are part of our stories now, too.

We also enjoyed exploring how people traveled in the old days and the many types of technology that they used. Our phones look very different!!

Here's our year 2's checking it out, with a bit of fun at Frank Kits Park too.

 

Positive Education: Positive Emotions and The Mood Meter

The Mood Meter

Excited or hungry? Calm or tired? Emotions come in all types so we have been learning about the different types of emotions and how they can be felt in our bodies. Some are high energy or low energy. Some are more pleasant than others. All emotions have a purpose and by learning how to label emotions it can help us to regulate them (link here).

We have been learning how to use a Mood Meter and how to describe a wider range of emotions.

Source link

We are spending some time thinking about what creates different types of emotions for us and how we might be able to self-regulate them.

This has also helped us to learn new words in Te Reo Māori to help us practise asking and saying how we feel in Te Reo.

A day with the Seniors

This week we were fortunate to have the senior students share their learning and a number of very cool activities with Tautoru.



It was such a fun session and the level of friendship, team work and organisation on display was amazing. There were students engaged in netball and soccer sessions. Basketball skills were being developed along with a number of outdoor games.



The comic drawing session was very popular and there was a buzz in the library around the development of characters and storylines.



Thanks so much the senior team and we look forward to another day soon!