Writing: Falling into the ACTION!

This term we have had a narrative focus on our writing. Instead of starting every story with 'Once upon a time...' (although some great stories start this way!) we have been encouraging students to dive into the ACTION. This helps with our focus on show not tell, our stories allowing the reader to fully engage and feel as if they are a part of the story.

Please enjoy some stand out pieces of writing from this week. Our prompt was diving into the action of being on a pirate ship - ready to tackle an enemy ship, run by a heard of dinosaurs of course! While I'd like to credit your teaching team for coming up with this prompt, it is book called Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs. Highly recommend!

Helena: 

"Walk the plank!" said Captain Lady Bug as the pirate dinosaur tramped closer and closer on the ship. "The pirate dinosaurs are going to attack!" screeched Chief Cicada. Meanwhile... the pirate dinosaur chef was baking a victory cake for their success. "You are going to pay for this!" Said everyone at once, when suddenly assistant caterpillar leapt onto the other ship. They had a fight. Boom! Kapaw! Thwang! 

Kyle M: 

All the dinosaurs jumped into the freezing water, except for the monstrous T-Rex! Flint was fighting the T-rex until the T-Rex could do no more and that took a very long time. The T-Rex said "Flinn, you're a good pirate, you can be our captain." Flint said "maybe one day but I must go back to school it's almost lunch time."

Fractions

During the last two weeks in maths we have been focusing on fractions

We have learnt that a fraction is the parts of a whole, or a collection of objects, which can be shared equally.

We have also learnt about equivalent fractions, they are fractions which have different numerators and denominators, but are equal to the same amount.

Next time you have something round to eat, ask us to cut it into even parts and what fraction that might be!

Growth mindset

We have been learning about growth mindset in Tautoru. Here is what we have found out...

It's about not giving up - Daya

If you make a mistake, try again and keep on going - Luca

Don't see the problem, see how to solve it - Helena

If you make a mistake, you can ask someone else - Ewan

If you make a mistake, don't worry because mistakes help out brains grow - Otis

If you fail, you can always try again - George

If you think you can't do something, don't give up, keep trying - Indie

Think of ways it could work before you do it, so that you know what might have happened - Ronan

If you make a mistake, keep trying and eventually you'll be able to do it - Thomas

Anybody can do it - Finn A

When you start something new, your brain makes a new pathway and if you make a mistake you can just turn around and choose a different pathway - Bonnie

If you don't try anything, you'll never know what it could have been - Lily

Asking for help - Eli

Don't give up, try and figure it out - Kai

Try again after you fail - Finn G

You can take lots of different pathways - Tabby

Try something new each day so that your brain can grow and be able to do bigger problems when you grow up - Leo

The power of YET - Fox

Nobody gives up - Lachie

If you make mistakes you don't give up - Amberlee

Next time you find something challenging, come and ask one of us for help!

Matariki - Whānau groups

  

In our whānau groups, we explored stories of the Matariki star cluster from around the world. Ask us what we learnt at home...

Whānau groups are groups of children and teachers across the school. There is an added bonus- siblings and families work together. Teachers and students learn from each other! We have been thinking about Tuakana/ Teina. The older students teach the younger students. The roles can also be reversed. We saw this with great energy on Friday!

Matariki Kai - thank you for joining us for this special lunch!

The stars of Matariki

This week we have been exploring the stars of Matariki. Our Tamariki already knew a little bit from their whānau celebrations last week and enjoying the beautiful displays on the Te Whanganui a Tara Waterfront.

We've deep dived into each of the 9 stars, discussing what they mean to both the natural environment and to us as individuals. We brought the learning to life by studying produce made possible by Tupuānuku and Tupuārangi, recreating the rain from Waipuna-ā-rangi and making wishes to Hiwa-i-te-rangi. Students created mind-maps to show their learning which we are looking forward to sharing with whānau. 

Enjoy the photos from our Inquiry progress so far, and stay tuned for how this learning progresses during Whānau Day and beyond! 

Tangaroa

 You may have noticed some changes in Tautoru in the last few weeks. 

We have been busy learning about Tangaroa the Atua of the oceans and all of the sea creatures.

"According to Māori creation traditions the god of the sea and progenitor of fish is Tangaroa, the son of Ranginui (the sky father) and Papatūānuku (the earth mother)" Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand.

We began by making some fish and creating an under water world in our classroom

Our classroom was set up for us to learn all about the oceans and sea creatures

We have been thinking like scientists and creating our own Tanagroa fact file

including observational drawings of fish

designing a fact file with information about different types of fish

Learning about the different zones of the ocean and how they influence the sea life within each zone

 Creating a mind-map with everything we can think of that links to the sea - 

including environmental issues too

And we looked at the what a clean ocean versus a polluted ocean will look like

With all this new information in mind, we wrote some ocean inspired poetry and displayed it with our fish as water droplets

We have also written an argument piece titled "How can we be kaitiaki of our oceans?" 

Keeping in mind we are young - what can we do to help? 

We had some very interesting ideas and thoughts about what all tamariki can do to stop over fishing and pollution of our beautiful beaches and oceans.

Please come in and have a closer look!