Cultural Festival

Just a quick update on the cultural festival...

If your child is performing in Junior Choir, please send them to L5 at 6pm on Thursday night.

If your child is in Drama, please send them to L3 at 6pm on Thursday night.

If your child is in Hip Hop, please send them to L4 at 6pm on Thursday night.

CHOIR IS THE FIRST ITEM THAT OUR CHILDREN ARE INVOLVED IN SO SEND YOUR CHILD TO L5 IF THEY ARE IM MULTIPLE ITEMS.  They will need to be collected from the second room that they are in.  You will need to sign your child in and out at the beginning and the end of the night.

The tamariki have been working extremely hard and are really excited about the performance.  I can't wait to see them perform!  See you all there!!

We had an amazing time at MOTAT last week!  Thank you to all the people that came to help us!

We had a good look at all the the old houses.  We also had a look at the new exhibits that they had as well.  It was heaps of fun!  We learnt all about how people had to live in the olden days when we went to visit the special teacher in the education room.  They didn't have washing machines, showers, taps with running water, or even a fridge to keep their food cold!  The teacher in the education room was wearing some really strange clothes that didn't look very comfortable.  We got to dress up in olden day clothes as well!  We all had a fantastic day and heaps of fun.

We are now going to look at WHY people have moved out of those houses and the types of houses that they have moved into.

Have a good week everybody!

A-Team is in charge of assembly this week!  Jai is going to be doing some presenting.  We are all really proud of him!  Make sure you come and see Jai talking to everybody!!

Don't forget about our MOTAT trip next week.  We still need some people to come and help us out!

Caeden made a rocket ship out of the mobilo.  He says it is awesome.  A1 thinks so too.  It flies to the very top of space and keeps going up and up and comes back down like lightning!

Isabella made a heart be eagle out of the mobilo.  She has made up a new special type of eagle.  It flies around to hunt for food.  It makes friends with other eagles and we all think it's really cool.

Have a great week everybody.

From A1

A1 decided to write our blog post together this week.  We have some new stations.  They are the sticky wall, our 100s board, our tweezers and dominoes.  We also have a game called Seaweed and Bubbles and our addition and subtraction ice block sticks.  They're really cool.

Mr Red Bear is watching us during maths time this week to see who is challenging themselves and using new things.  He whispers in Miss Waugh's ear and tells her who he thinks is doing a fantastic job.

We think this is the best school ever.

Here are some of the amazing cities we have created on the sticky wall.

From A1

We have been busy writing books in A1!  We have been really busy doing illustrations and writing the words in our books too!

Here is a book that Richard wrote:

Here is a book that Zavier wrote:

We have also been busy creating houses out of blocks and shapes.  We have been looking at pictures of different houses from around the world and have been thinking about the things that they are made out of, and where they are.

This is a house that Kuiwai and Ocean made together:

We were working really hard on our calendars last week.  They look amazing!!  Order forms will be coming out in the next few weeks so keep an eye out for them!

We started training for cross country today.  We will be training Monday - Thursday after lunch with all of the other year 0/1 children.  We don't leave the school grounds, we run around the field instead.

Our Inquiry this term is 'Movement'.  We have got all sorts of exciting things planned that we can't wait to get started! 

Discovery Time is carrying on as usual this term, much to A1's delight!  They continue to amaze me with their creativity and eagerness to think 'outside the box'.  Keep an eye out for pictures of the things the tamariki have created.  They are always keen to share what they have been learning and working on during this time.

Have a good week everybody!

We have been having so much fun during Discovery Time!

Take a look at some of the cool things we have been doing!

Marisol wrote an awesome story at the writing station. She used her sounds to help her write her words!

Declan drew a really cool Minion at the drawing and stencil station.  It took him ages to draw and he used his toy Minion to help him with his picture!

Roman made this amazing dinosaur at the construction station!  It stands up all by itself and has a mouth and teeth!

















Lauren, Ayla, Marisol and Isabella made this fantastic farm using the blocks and the animals.  They worked collaboratively to make places for all of the animals!

Hopefully everybody is getting over the bugs that have been going around the school this week.  A huge amount of teachers have been taken out by the flu and our class has been dwindling the last few days...

Our poem this week is called "Popcorn", and our big book is called "To Town".  The letters that we are learning about are Pp, Ii and Nn, and we are continuing to work on number formation, number patterns to 10, and number recognition to 20 for maths.

The Tamariki are really enjoying Discovery Time and interacting with A2.  Don't forget to check the blog to see some of our amazing creations that we want to share!  We were wondering if anybody has any of the following that they would be able to donate to our classrooms for Discovery Time:

-Scrap paper for drawing/writing
-Large or small balls
-Wool

Anything that you have hanging around home that you don't want anymore would be much appreciated!!

Have a great week everybody!

An Axe Made by Jai

This is an axe.  What it does is it can smash the ground to make a really big hole for your new house. So this is a type of very bad axe that can do the stuff it says. It can smash the construction of houses if you go out.

Dictated to the computer by Jai

Wasn't Wednesday night fantastic!  It was so exciting for me to listen to the tamariki sharing their learning and getting excited about their goals for the rest of the year.  Thank you to all of those people who made the effort to come out and listen to their sharing.  It is so beneficial for the children to know and share their next learning steps with you.

Our big book this week is called "Grandpa, Grandpa", and our poem is called "Like".  We are working on number recognition and formation to 20 for maths and we are starting our Cody Capitals for Word Work this week.

The term is once again flying by.  At the end of this week we are officially half way through the term already!  It's hard to believe we will be in June at the end of this week as well.

Keep up the hard work tamariki!  i am really proud of you all!!

Have a great week everybody!

It's hard to believe that we are already in week 4!  The year is certainly flying by.

This week our big book is called "The Farm Concert" and our poem is called "For".  The letters we are learning about are 'j', 'x', and 'y', and we are doing number formation, and rote counting to 10, then 20, for maths.

Please check whether you have booked in for your Learner Led Conference on Wednesday, or, if this is not convenient, let management know if you would like your child to share their learning with one of them.

DON'T FORGET THAT SCHOOL FINISHES AT 12.30 ON WEDNESDAY!!  Any children left behind will be sent to the office at the end of the day.

Richard asked me to take a picture of his amazing 'Pete's Dragon' that he made out of Mobilo during Discovery Time last week.  He was very proud of his work and really wanted to share it with everybody on our blog.  We all thought that it was really cool.

Have a great week everybody!

A Team teachers have thoroughly enjoyed the return to learning this term. We sure hope the students are having as much fun as we are! The feedback from them and parents of A Team students says it certainly looks that way.

           

We wanted to take this opportunity to unpack a little more about teaching and learning in today’s landscape. It’s looks and feels very different from our classroom days, regardless of where in the world you attended school. Frankly, so it should be. With the well researched best approaches to teaching and learning easily accessible and with the tools we now have at our disposal our ‘digital natives’ deserve nothing less than an environment that will allow maximum engagement, growth and achievement.

Using this research and allowing the use of tools for learning Whangaparaoa School has adopted a fully integrated inquiry approach and use our amazing chromebooks to respond to our curiosity and ‘OWN’ our learning.

The Inquiry cycle at WGP School starts with provocation. Last week and this week A Team students have been ‘reclassed’ into groups from each different room. Groups from Year 1 to 6 move around A Team each afternoon and engage in new experiences related to the concept of “CHANGE”, within the context of Science. The purpose of these experiences is not to ‘teach’ science in the old way but to ignite and excite the students curiosity in this area so they can explore, question, research, investigate, test and share their hypothesise and findings with a targeted audience.

We are engaged in the first stage of “INQUIRY”

‘Sandy the Scientist’, a visiting expert ;) has joined us for both Monday’s this term with the intention of sparking student interest in chemical change before all of A Team students are cross grouped for the afternoon session. If you are wondering about where your child is in the afternoons at the moment CLICK HERE.

Following our provocation focus students will be identifying areas of high interest and pinpointing learning they’ve been exposed to that has made them extra curious. You may have noticed them coming home and wanting to reproduce the experiments they have enjoyed at school. This is a good example of how we are trying to incite continuous learning. This then motivates student questions and we know from the research that when a student’s learning is platformed from their own self-directed questions and curiosity it makes the end result powerfully learned.

Our inquiry model has come from Kath Murdoch’s work, an Australasian Educational expert who responds to research by providing a scaffolded way to ‘do it’ for teachers. Here’s a short clip of her explaining what it means to be an Inquiry Teacher:

                                   

Sharing what is learned is an integral part of Inquiry - In essence, we learn, we create, we share. Not necessarily in that order and when you look at your child’s day each aspect of this process should be evident. Creating has taken on a whole new meaning. Before the digital era (and we define this as since ipad technology exploded onto the market, only in 2009) we could access a student’s learning response in books and on classroom walls. This is no longer an accurate indication as the platform they now have to share their work has grown exponentially. Teachers are the experts in analysing and identifying progress and the tools they have to do this also reflect the digital age. This means anyone making an assumption on progress by simply looking in a book could be grossly misguided and just plain wrong. For any questions regarding progress it is best to talk to the teacher.

Our school website is about to be updated to reflect our new understanding around what best practice looks like in an inquiry class. It says this:

Inquiry-based learning is a constructivist approach. This means children are engaged in constructing knowledge rather than simply acquiring it. Knowledge is constructed based on personal experiences and hypotheses of the environment, meaning students take ownership of their learning. It is the New Zealand Curriculum’s approach to teaching and learning.

Our unique Vertical Learning Communities allow children of all ages to share experiences and knowledge around our inquiry focus, while strengthening our learning community as the children become teachers to each other.

The benefits of learning through inquiry include higher order thinking, improved problem solving abilities and critical thinking skills. These are all identified as the leading skills looked for in today’s employment market. It increases personal ownership and responsibility for learning, develops skills of research and a student’s ability to determine the importance of the information they encounter.

Inquiry Learning supports our school ORCA values of Ownership, Respect, Collaboration and Achievement.

We look forward to the questions our students will ask, the discoveries they will make and how they will share what they’ve learned to others.

Please feel free to ask any questions you may have about how your child is learning and why with the classroom teacher. We are also very happy to share with anyone interested more about the landscape of teaching and learning so any misconceptions out there can be addressed. Ka kite ano...