Year 3 and 4 Beach Day

As part of our Positive Education programme, Year 3 and 4 spent a great day on the beach reconnecting with each other and employing some Positive Purpose. We did a clean up, a walk, play in the park and a sand castle competition. Our Learner Attribute focus this term is "Being Connected." What a great way to be connected. 

From the Institute of Positive Education at Geelong Grammar School: "Positive Purpose: The Positive Purpose domain explores understanding, believing in, and serving something greater than the self and deliberately engaging in activities for the benefit of others. It encourages students and staff to draw on their character strengths in ways that contribute to the welfare of others and the wider community. It also recognises that belonging to a supportive school community is a strong pathway to purpose and to wellbeing." 

Dragons

Scott's literacy group have been working on writing character descriptions.

We have created written pieces describing our favourite breakfast , very popular and too delicious!

There were cries for Dragons last week so we decided to create a description of one. Check out some of these amazing descriptions filled with similes, exciting verbs and action galore!

#1
I looked outside and spotted something. It flies with great big wings and fire. It looks like a lava flying thing! I have a closer look and see that it is a two-headed lava dragon! It lives in a volcano and disguises itself as lava. It eats lava all the time. It has a dark heart and uses it for blowing lava from its mouth. It looks like lava and growls like a tiger. It is scary. If its eyes are red it means it is not my dragon because mine has blue eyes. It sits and waits for its prey. It is always ready to jump out and eat something with one single gulp. It can pick up great rocks with its lava tail and can throw it so far that it goes into the sun.

By Romy

 

#2
One night something whizzed out of the sky. Splash it landed in the water. It was an oval shape and it was glowing. The next day I went to the beach and swam in the water. I saw a glowing object in the sand. I dug it out. It was the same shape I saw earlier in the night. It was an egg. I took it home. That night I woke up because I heard creaking noises. Every second a creak appeared on the egg. The egg began to hatch a dragon. On the end of its tail was a glowing moon.

This dragon lives on the moon and it breaths moon rocks. He sleeps during the day inside a huge crater. It can turn invisible at night. It is the only one of its kind , a magical moon dragon that is as big as me and only eats moon crystals!

By Alfred




#3
Dragons are venomous and some are super heros. Some are not superheros because they chase people for fun. I know one that is as dangerous as an anaconda. It likes to bathe in the sunlight. He digs underground for its prey. He loves to eat giant worms and snails and has to eat 600 a day! He hibernates in winter and comes out in early spring. They haunt their forest and keep people away. One night one landed on my house. Crack, crack, crack my house crumbled into pieces. He grabbed me on the shoulder and it dropped me from the sky. It was 600 metres high. When I was falling I saw a pack of them. The one that attacked me was the queen.

The dragon I am talking about has claws as sharp as a sharks mouth. The teeth are very pointy. It growls like a snake with a ‘Hissssss’. I am scared of its prickly scales that are all over its back. It is sneaky as a ninja. At night it snores and rumbles all over the world. It’s belly wiggles and jiggles as it sleeps.

By Isabella


Still a way to go as we are hoping to add more about their diet, or home or even a special power they

may possess.




#4
My dragon is too big to fit in my house (it is really BIG). It spits acid and fire. It’s 3 tails have wrecking balls and it has 13 crazy eyes and four fangs. It lives in caves and forests that are dark.

Otto



Stay tuned for further updates!

Art skills and techniques.

In Tautoru over the last couple of weeks we have been exploring different artistic techniques. We have had students sketching, creating amazing symmetry with felt tips and water, and silhouette art.

It has been great to see skills slowly developing and we have created some amazing pieces.

Students have been learning how to shade to create texture and depth. There has been a huge improvement in how we can blend watercolours. 

Inquiry- Taking Action using Kaizen steps

We are busy planning our actions to help us solve some of the problems we have identified around us. Some of us are planning speeches, movies and plays.

We have organised our  plans into Kaizen steps (all the different parts of the project to be done) on a Kanban board so that we know which part of the project comes first and what to do next.

Here we are in action, ready to make our projects come to life.

I am Connected through writing

This week some of us got to visit Autahi to share our writing and to practise being connected learners. We were keen to share our stories about getting to school.. with a twist.

We had used this story about children in Colombia who use a zip line to get to school as a writing prompt. We imagined what it would be like to have to do that every day!

Then we went to Autahi to share our stories and some of the things we have learned this year to help us become great writers. We all remember our early days as writers and we feel proud of how far we've come. We shared tips like:

- Re-reading our reading to check for meaning and full stops.
- Sounding out words and writing all the sounds we can hear.
- Adding more ideas to make our writing longer.

We really enjoyed connecting with our Autahi buddies and sharing our learning!

Whanau Day with Scott and Hayley

The Whanau group working with Hayley and Scott created shields to represent themselves in different areas. Their shields represented themselves as an animal , a character strength , a symbol of nature, and something of their own choice.



Students shared with one another what animal best represented them and their character strengths. We had brave lions, curious monkeys and even a couple of loyal dragons.



There was a lot of support and enthusiasm for this activity from the students in Autahi through to our Year 6 stars. The Seniors showed lots of teamwork and empathy for others when helping to cut out shields , develop ideas, and when providing feedback to others.