Ko wai mātou?

Ko wai mātou ? Our Inquiry learning this term has given us some great information about the origins of all our whānau in Tautoru.  We have been able to see the connections in Tautoru to different places and favourite spaces.  We have had a range of activities over the last few weeks that have helped us learn about the world and where our special places and connections are on the map.   We asked some good questions and we know the world is not flat like a map.  We are looking forward to sharing this with our whānau on Wednesday.

 

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We are in the process of making our kindness creatures.  These tiny works of art complement our learning about bugs, camouflage and the skills we have been learning in art about shapes and patterns.  We have been looking carefully to make sure our bugs have lots of tiny intricate details.  Thanks so much to Chloe for coming to help us !  Here is a sneak peek.   

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Miramar Rangers - Football Tournament

On Wednesday our eager Year 3 and 4 tamariki had the opportunity to head to Miramar Park and compete against other schools in the Miramar Rangers Football tournament.

Students improved their football skills, practiced working in a team and demonstrating good sportsmanship. They had the talented Miramar Rangers Football coaches there to support.

Ākau Tangi Sports Day

On Tuesday Tautoru (year 2 and 3) along with Autahi (year 1) and the year 4's went to Ākau Tangi sports centre for a fun day of skills.

We were split into three groups which rotated around three activities:

1. Netball Skills

2. Gymnastics

3. Ball Skills

We had amazing instructors who taught us new skills and activities we can try back at school.

Netball Skills

One of the key skills we are trying to learn in netball is moving with a ball, into space and keeping our eyes on the ball so that we can catch it. 

We are learning the different ways we can pass a ball, and how we can move into the right space to keep the ball moving. 

We also need to make sure that the person who we are passing the ball to is ready - so we use their name and make sure they have their hands ready in a 'W' to catch. 

 

Our year 4 buddies helped by being great role models and encouraging us. 

We enjoyed working in mixed age and ability teams as we all learn so much from each other.

Another key netball skill is being able to throw the ball accurately. This was a fun game where we had to knock the cone off the chair - we will definitely try this back at school!

Gymnastics

We were lucky enough to have Miles and Emily, coaches from Harbour City Gymnastics Club teach us. 

We started with a warm up where we had to try lots of different movements with our body which was related to the positions used in gymnastics.

We did some stretching, and then were introduced to a fun circuit which included all of the exercises we had just been practising! 

Once again - our year 4 buddies helped us by showing what they can do, and helping some of us conquer our fears!

This position is called 'motorbike' as you crouch as you land, and it looks like you are driving a motorbike!

Ball Skills

This is an area of physical education that we have been working on at school - throwing and (ultimately) catching! Lots of us find this challenging, so it was fun to try all types of balls - from netball, tennis to soft squishy balls and try and throw them as high as we could. 

The emphasis was not on skills so much as just having a go and having fun!

"My favourite part was gymnastics"

"I liked EVERYTHING!"

"It was hard catching some of the balls"

"When are we going again?"

Observational Drawing

 

One of our independent learning tasks last week was doing an observational drawing of a butterfly. 

We supplied our tamariki with a large scale butterfly, a magnifying glass and some special drawing pencils and explained what an observational drawing needs to have - thinking again like a scientist.

We have been talking a lot about the life cycle of the butterfly, moth and frog, and our tamariki are really passionate about this topic. We are really impressed with the close detail and careful drawings completed.

Some people even chose to add a little bit of colour and tried to make their butterflies symmetrical.

Please pop into class and see the results for yourself!

Place Value

Our math focus for 2023 so far has been number knowledge, particularly place value. Ingraining number knowledge, such as how numbers consist of groups of 100’s, 10’s and 1’s is crucial for future mathematical thinking. 

In Tautoru we have been splitting numbers into their place value groups, skip counting in these groups, and using place value to support addition, subtraction and eventually multiplication! 

This week a group of students took their place value learning outside of the classroom, showing that the work we do splitting numbers in our books and using number blocks, can also be demonstrated in the great outdoors. We used chalk to show the 10’s and 1’s values of different numbers. Tamariki realised that the size of the 10’s value does in-fact matter, as it has to be able to fit 10 of the 1’s digits inside of it!

After this we formed numbers with our bodies, some students standing tall to represent a 10, while others crouched down low to form a 1’s value.

Research shows that learning in a range of ways and contexts supports retention of new knowledge. It engages different areas of the brain, and this cross referencing strengthens memory retention. If you’d like more detail of these benefits, check out this article!

Here are some photos of what we got up to, enjoy!

Mihi Whakatau and Hīkoi

Thursday was a big day for us; all about connecting!

Firstly, Mihi Whakatau was connecting with our new whānau and staff. It is always a real highlight of our annual calendar and a real celebration of our special place up here on the cliff tops. This wāhi tupuna, or place of the ancestors, is really significant as we know it is the first permanent Pā site in the Te Whanganui-a-Tara area. We are connected to the past, we are connected to the sea, the wind and our wider environment. With Mihi Whakatau, our new students, families and teachers become tangata whenua and, as such, belong here. Connected as part of our Worser Bay Whānau forever!

In the evening, we had a hardy group join together for the Hikoi. Tāwhirimātea was out in force but were we daunted? Not a chance! We told the stories of the past, from the legends of the great Taniwha, Kupe and the giant wheke through to the stories of Taranihoniho and the early settlement of the motu, Te Motuwhetukairangi.

Thanks to all of you who participated in these events; it was fantastic to connect with you all.

Hīkoi

Caterpillars, moths and butterflies

 It wouldn't be a late summer term in New Zealand without the excitement of caterpillars arriving at school. We are fortunate to have so many interested budding scientists in our class, there is a constant supply of caterpillars, crickets, cicadas, moths, chrysalis's and hopefully butterflies and moths eventually.

This links beautifully to our New Zealand Science curriculum, particularly the living world achievement objective NZ Science curiculum 

• Recognise that there are life processes common to all living things and that these occur in different ways.

We have been looking for caterpillars in our kowhai tree and found out that they turn into a moth from a cocoon. 

This is different from our Monarch caterpillars which change from a caterpillar to a chrysalis and then a butterfly.

We have so much knowledge about the lifecycle of a caterpillar.

We have written poems about butterflies too.