Learning to read is a complex road! We don't often remember 'how' we learn to read - there is no single aha! moment - because the progress is so incremental and has so many different components. But one thing never changes: if children are enthusiastic and enjoy reading the seeds we plant now will bloom in years to come as texts become more challenging.
In Tautoru, we encourage a love of reading in many different ways. We read for enjoyment at different times of the days.
We have our reading lessons with our teachers.
Sometimes we read to ourselves and get lost in books that capture our interest.
We listen to more complex texts and enjoys the discussions.
How long? How high? How tall? How short? How far? Measuring length can help us answer so many questions! This week we have begun investigating how measure length and how that applies to our world.
We have been measuring distance using standard units like centimetres and investigating using non-standard units like blocks.
We have been measuring our steps and jumps.
We have been measuring our feet and our buddy's feet, then using addition and subtraction to work out the difference.
As you may have heard there has been a lot of exciting news regarding Mars over the last couple of weeks. There are satellites orbiting and recording along with a new Nasa Rover has landed and begun investigating the red planet.
We started this week writing descriptions of the rover. It has a number of awesome tools and adaptions from the previous rover. The students are very excited about learning more about the rover, craters and more so keep your eyes posted for future posts.
Here are some examples of our writing so far.
The rover landed on Mars. There is a camera to take photos of rocks. The rocks are sharp and red. It has a drill to look for water. By Sophie
The rover can move around. It can pick up rocks to take photos. It uses its drill to open the rocks easily. It has six wheels and it moves slowly and is really strong because Mars is dangerous. By Luella
We spent this week discussing how to keep ourselves and others safe when we are online. In addition, we also added how we treat our technology in different environments. We used our school value of Respect as a way to begin these conversations.
Students shared a number of great ideas about how we take care of our technology and how
to also make good decisions about where we work with digital tech.
Students are aware that spending too long on a digital device is not the best for our brains or our valuable
time. There were also a number of concerned faces when we discussed the best position to use technology - we don't lie upside down, or run through the class waving our ipads around!
Using technology provides opportunities for students to develop ideas, record their ideas, and celebrate student learning with whanau. Year 3 students will soon be taking their digital technologies agreement home and we encourage families to spend time discussing these ideas with your children. Year 3's will receive their Gmail accounts in the near future.
Weeks of practice and dedication came together on Friday as we carried out our pōwhiri for 2021. Though the weather forced us inside at the last minute, we were so proud of the 'mana' and 'ihi' (essential force) shown by all students while performing haka and waiata. A special mention to our 'kaea' or kapa haka leaders who led from the front and really brought the house down! From the staff perspective, we were also thrilled to have been able to carry out more of the ceremony in Te Reo Māori, while following the 'kawa' or protocol of mana whenua, Te Āti Awa/Taranaki Whānui. If you haven't already, please check out the Week 4 Newsletter for translation and explanation of our pōwhiri.
Here are some of our students' thoughts on pōwhiri:
Pōwhiri was good. I liked the singing and sang with lots of power - Fabian S
I liked doing Taku Manu pōwhiri because you get to do lots of actions - Zen S
I had so much fun at the pōwhiri with all the people we were welcoming to the school - Zoe C
It was great, I felt really good about it because I was quite loud and I am very proud of myself - Aila B
I thought pōwhiri was really good, I enjoyed singing the songs and listening to the speeches - Lucy N
I was a leader for the pōwhiri and I think we gave it our all and gave it lots of power - Eddie B
Well, where to next? As well as mihi whakatau (smaller welcoming ceremonies for later arrivals) throughout the year, our attention now turns to the first kahui ako (group of Eastern Suburbs schools) Kapa Haka festival in Term 2. We are developing some old, new and different haka and waiata for this occasion, so watch this space!
Tuia, tuia tuia anō
Tuia i runga, Tuia i raro Tuia ki roto, tuia ki waho, Tuia te Whānau o Whetūkairangi. Ko te whānau o Whetūkairangi e Nō reira, e tau nei ki runga i a tātou katoa, te wairua aroha. Kia ora koutou katoa!
Above and below are woven together, as is what is inside us and that which is outside of us. And, we are woven together as a whānau, the Whānau of Whetūkairangi.
Te reo Māori learning is a key part of our programme in Tautoru. We are currently wrapping up our learning unit on "Kei te pēhea koe?" which is "How are you feeling?"
We thought it was very fitting to start the year with regular check ins and practise on saying how we are feeling.
Each week we have a focused, explicit lesson on a particular sentence structure in te reo Māori. This has just been "Kei te pēhea koe?". To support this, we also start each morning with a te reo hotspot to maintain and practise our new learning.
Here is the sentence structure and visuals to support how to ask and answer how we are feeling.
"Kei te pēhea koe?" (How are you feeling?)
"Kei te ____ ahau." (I am feeling __.) e.g. Kei te pai ahau.
It sounds a bit funny, but yes we are learning how to talk and communicate effectively! Twice a week all of Tautoru mix up and head into our problem solving groups.
During this time, we are learning how to share, explain and justify our strategies. At the moment, we are focusing on listening to our buddy. This is an important skill that we explicitly learn how to do. We must look at our buddy, listen to understand what they are saying and then ask some questions to check we understand.
After we have listened to our buddy share their strategy, we agree or challenge their idea. We talk about how to do this respectfully. In Tautoru, we call it friendly arguing as we are not arguing against the person, but rather discussing whether the strategy is the most effective for that problem or not.
This is the general process that we base our problem solving lessons around.
As you can imagine, there is a lot of learning going on during our problem solving time! Not just learning new maths skills and strategies, but how to communicate, listen and question each other.
To support the kids, we use talk move cards. We focus on one or two cards for a couple of weeks and then start on a new one once we feel we have that card safely stored in our talk toolkit.
Here are the talk move cards we use. Feel free to have a go at using them at home!
