Focus Words 2025

Goal Setting Meetings kicked off this week and we are so grateful for the time we had together discussing students goals, hopes and dreams for 2025 and also the perspectives that you share with us that help us get to know your child that little bit more.  We always leave these meetings with a real sense of connection and optimism about the year ahead.     Thanks again ! 

Part of our goal setting process is coming up with a focus word for the year.  This word is usually a strength based word that we can use throughout the year.  It is a powerful tool for guiding our actions, mindsets and work throughout the year. 

The intent of our focus word for 2025 is to:

• help us recognise our strengths and how we can dial these up in different ways. 

• simplify the process of goal-setting by shining a light on the things we might be good at or what we want to improve.

• be daily inspiration and a reminder that we all have different strengths to contribute to our class.

We think widely about lots of different ways we can use this strength across the curriculum.  At the end of the year we love to look back and reflect on these strengths and how we have further developed them over time. 

Here is the list of character strengths we might choose from. There are many others too.

Do you have a focus word for the year, or are you thinking of choosing one?

Our Taonga

We have spent our first 9 days together as a Tautoru whānau.  Some of us returning toTautoru as Year 3s and some starting already super familiar and comfortable in the space and with our routines and processes.  It has been lovely seeing the smiles return,  bringing our school back to life and laughter.  For the first part of the term we are really focusing on getting to know each other and what makes us special.  We are busy at work making connections between our whānau and special places, locally, regionally and globally.  We bring lots to the classroom in terms of culture and diversity and we plan on deep diving into this for a bit so that we can make sure we are celebrating this throughout the year.  

Thank you for sharing your taonga with us.  Thank you for giving us the insights and information about your child’s names and your whānau connections.  It is truly fascinating and wonderful to see the students making connections on a variety of levels.  

Here are some of the whānau taonga that students have bought to share with each other.   As we share these  with each other over the next week or so we will be updating the BLOG so that you can share in this learning too.  We have learnt so much already.  

Space Place - Learning Celebration

We had a great learning celebration -  Our students got to share all of their learning with whānau.  We also topped off our Inquiry with a visit to Space Place.   We went into the stardome to explore the night sky and also got to look through the solar telescope.   

Eye Spy with My Little Eye ....

We have been learning a bit about Our Body and how amazing our body parts are.  We had a close look at all kinds of different eyes this week.   We looked at human eyes and eyes of different animals We know that no eyeball is the same and this is only one of the things that makes us stand out and unique from each other.   

We used pastel to create bright colours,  we blended colours and added texture using shapes and colours. 

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

 In Tautoru this week we started to explore the world of money and Financial Literacy.  Funnily enough our kids knew a lot about money and how it works. They had lots of experiences to share about travelling and seeing or using different currencies.  Off the successes of our school fair we decided to set up our own market to help us learn in a real life context.   Lots of fun was had creating and running our stalls.  We could also practice adding and subtracting and even a dash of place value was included.

We settled on things to sell, put a price list together and off we went on our shopping sprees around the classroom. 

There were great discussions and negotiations happening.  We definitely had some big spenders and some thoughtful budgeters !  We explored the value of different coins and notes and it was an authentic real life context where we could include concepts we have been maintaining all year like addition, subtraction, and place value.

You can continue this learning at home by talking about the value of money, saving and making good choices.  Games are great like Monopoly etc.  Play shops, add prices and give change. 

Expressing Learning with Loose Parts

 

Here is a sneak peek of how we are expressing our learning for our Inquiry.   We will be sharing with our parents and whānau in the next couple of weeks so watch this 'space' for more :-)

Quote from:  https://theeducationhub.org.nz/materials-for-play-why-open-ended-loose-parts-are-important/

GRIT and Growth Mindset

Growth Mindset and GRIT are a big part of our learning.   We have been revisiting the difference between a Growth Mindset and a Fixed Mindset. All aspects of  Our Positive Education Model need Growth mindset and GRIT.  So what does that look like on a day to day basis ?

Our students feeling empowered  to take on difficult tasks, maintaining a positive attitude in the face of adversity, and continuously striving towards their goals, both in school and in life.

Along with learning about emotions, Grit helps children manage frustration and stress and instead,  learning to stay calm and keep trying.  Everyone needs a little reminding and encouraging when they face difficult situations or failure. Please help us on this quest and encourage your child to notice when they have dialled up their GRIT or Growth mindset.  These times are worth celebrating and great authentic opportunities to learn and develop these skills. 

The combination of these two traits encourages a strong work ethic, a positive attitude toward learning, and an understanding that success is earned through effort and perseverance—not just innate ability.