Staying Connected.

There are so many different ways to stay connected. At this time we have the ability to stay connected even while apart, connect to new ways of learning and even connect to things we never really had time to before while we appreciate all the things that we have.

At school, we always talk about Gratitude and Hope being such important character strengths as they tap into Positive Emotions. Like Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence, they fall under the character strengths linked to transcendence and meaning. They connect us to each other, our world and also to ourselves.

We are so fortunate- and grateful!- to have ways to keep in touch at this time. Here are some ways that Tautoru has stayed connected through Seesaw this week:

Sharing my home music practice

Using Seesaw from home

Home learning- writing

We realise that staying connected to learning will help while staying at home during the school holidays. As well as the links we shared this week, here is a list of some links that the whole family can use to learn and for fun:

Bedtime Maths-  Daily maths problems for the whole family. There are also technology-free maths challenges. This is an American website so some of the measurements are in imperial units.

Scholastic - reading and writing activities for all levels

Art Projects for kids - loads of easy to follow tutorial.

Easy home science experiments

National Geographic for kids- animals, animals, animals!

NZ Geographic- Together at Home loads of NZ based ideas to explore and easy at home challenges.

Te Ara- New Zeland Encyclopedia Type in your keywords and find out about our history, our stories, our environment. The collection is interactive with stories and videos.

Last of all, don't forget to get some of that daily Vitamin D by going outside and staying active... at a distance. Notice the world outdoors even if it's just when looking outside the window. How many birds visit your home? What kind are they? What critters live in our backyard? What is flowering at the moment? Draw, label and write about what you see. This is Our Blue Planet!

If you can't head outside, how about some dancing?

Or join the March Maker Ed Marble Run Challenge

We look forward to connecting again after the school holidays! Aroha nui!

Inquiry- The Blue Planet

Source https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/BlueMarble/BlueMarble_history.php

Our Earth is called The Blue Planet because it has so much water. Our new inquiry will focus on developing our understanding of our relationship to water.

Our Deep Understandings are:

- Water has interesting properties and is essential to life on Earth.
- Water is affected by how well we use it and care for it.

We will be thinking and behaving like scientists by asking questions and making observations during experiments to help us understand the essential place of water in our lives.

We launched into our inquiry by thinking about: What changes when there is no water? We used our Learner Attribute of Being a Thinker and shared ideas, thought about problems and shared our thinking in different ways.

Here are some of our initial ideas about how water impacts our world:

Measuring- maths is here, there and everywhere!

Maths helps us to explore the world around us.  This week we have begun to investigate different things to measure as well as different ways of measuring. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn some new language and new maths skills.

Some of us went outside and wondered about the different things we can measure in our vegetable boxes: the height, the width, how much soil is in them, how much water do the plants need and even how many plants could we put in them? (we will be working on them soon!)

Some of us have been investigating how to measure using blocks, thinking about that is longer, shorter or the same.

Using a ruler to measure can be a bit of a challenge because they all look a bit different. Finding the zero mark can change! Here we are measuring different things with increasing accuracy.

We are measuring our fingers! We found out that most of our nails on our thumbs were about 1cm. 

We are super sensible digital citizens!

This week we are diving into digital citizenship! We are learning the importance of being safe online and while using technology. Many from Tautoru knew that it was important to limit the amount of time we use on screens so then we can still enjoy all the benefits of using it! Digital technology helps us with our learning at school, such as using puppet pals to make our stories come alive and listening to stories that we have read with the teacher. It also helps us communicate with others through email, Seesaw and blogs!

What is in the Box?

Scott's literacy group have been writing descriptions of a Taniwha. We have described the way it moves, what is special about our creature, where it can be found and where it came from.



We had a mysterious box arrive in class this week. What is it? What was inside? Does it have anything to do with a Taniwha !?

We had a number of great ideas and the students were very creative in their responses. Here are just a few ....

A Walk to the Library

On Tuesday two of the base groups from Tautoru headed off to Miramar Library.



The excitement was high as we ventured past friends houses, our own homes and places we visit to watch movies, grab a coffee or even a haircut.



It was so great to see the kids excited to share their favourite books and search the shelves for something of interest.




A lot of the students were keen to get books out for themselves so don't be surprised parents if there are urgent requests to get down to the library.



Thanks to the parents that helped out with the walk down and with ushering the kids that were finding the last leg up hill a bit of a challenge.

Friday is Soccer Day

Friday is for Soccer!

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Fantastic to see students excited and enthusiastic about soccer. We have been working on our silky soccer skills over the last three weeks and there is a noticeable increase in energy and skill levels.

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We have a lot of students that have never played and it has been great to have the experienced coaches from Wellington football to help out. Cheers guys.