Prize Giving 2019

End of Year Prize Giving

The end of year prize giving is always a highlight of the year.  This year, we were forced indoors as the weather was not on our side.  It was however, quite good to be able to share a slide.

Check it out:

Year 6 Camp 2019

Living at Living Springs 

Camp 2019

Oh, how we love camp.  This year was particularly good at camp.  We had a great bunch of kids and awesome adult help.  Here are a few pictures of our time there.

Oh, how we wish we didn't have to leave Living Springs.  We are so grateful to CERT and Storetaste for helping to make camp 2019 possible.

Year 6 Final Assembly

Sensational Year 6s

Today we had our final Year 6 assembly.  Every Year 6 student that was at school today, stood in front of the school and shared about their time here at Ara Tū Whakatā.  It is hard to believe that we only have a week and a half left.

Here is a slide we shared for our assembly.

Talk about adorable.  

Mindfulness

Self Compassion

This week our Mindfulness sessions have been focusing on self-compassion.  We have been learning to identify our thoughts and focus and keep the positive ones and push the negative ones away.

We did quite a personal and difficult activity where we had to acknowledge some of the negative thoughts we might have about ourselves.  We also highlighted and identified some of the positive thoughts we have.

In our creative activity, we had to show our negative thoughts being destroyed and our positive thoughts being larger and held on to.

Here is an example of Miss Waho's.

Mat Manners

Mat Manners~Our School Expectations

This week we are looking at our mat manners expectations.  We have thought about what we sometimes do that needs to change and set goals to work towards so we see a class-wide improvement.  

This is the example of the activity we did.

Our focus now is to make sure we actually show these changes.

Value Focus~Risk Taking

Our Comfort Zone

Today in Values, we learned about risk-taking.  The kind of risk-taking we are talking about is the things that we can do to develop our learning, enjoy new experiences and grow as people.  

We discussed what our comfort zone is and how we need to take different paths at times, often feeling like risks, where we may feel uncomfortable and out of our comfort zone.  This is where the learning, growth and enjoyment happens.  

We decided to create our learning about our own comfort zones by using either a Google Drawing or Mind Mup.  

Check out individual blogs to see examples.

Here are some incomplete examples of Miss Waho's comfort zones:

The next step for my learning is to work out how I can take different paths and risks so that things out of my comfort zone become learning and positive experiences,

Orana Park Trip 2019

Orana Wildlife Park 2019

Te Ara Takitini had an amazing animal adventure.  Two buses took us to Orana Wildlife Park and as we made our way there, we chatted about what we might see.

We were greeted by Elizabeth our educator who took us around the park and shared her expertise with us.  

Here are a few of our highlights.  There were so many exciting and informative parts of our day so these are just a few. 

This beautifully coloured peacock showed us his feathers but I missed the shot.

The Tasmanian Devil is a nocturnal animal so was sleeping in its little hut.  The keepers were cleaning their enclosure and checking in on them.

A friendly young springbok made its way over to say hello to us.  Springboks can jump straight up in the air, higher than their own height.

One of the absolute highlights of our day was seeing the lions up close while they were waiting for their enclosure to be cleaned.  One pride was outside while the other pride lingered in the cage.  
We learned that male lions that have been fixed, don't have manes because they don't have the right hormones.  Their energy then goes into their bodies which then makes them bigger than they might usually have been.

One of my all-time favourite farm animals is the kunekune pig.  When we wandered through the farmyard animal section, we stopped by to chat with the grunty and friendly kunekune pig.  Ethan got to pat him which made the kunekune grunt even more.

For us to see the cheetahs, we had to head uphill.  They were hiding in the long grass but luckily Kirty's mum had spotted them so we went to higher ground.

Some of the funniest animals we saw were the orangutans.  One of the females was ambling around with a sheet that she used to cover herself.  She even did a rolly polly and then the male looked like he was biting her.

An absolute highlight of the day was seeing the great gorillas.  Three of them were resting on the nests they had made from shredded paper.  We sat and watched them and could quite easily have stayed and watched them for ages.  They are our closest cousins and we could see similarities between the gorillas and us.

We had a really good day and are grateful to have had the opportunity to visit Orana Park and learn some interesting facts about different animals.  One very important thing we heard about was the impact of humans on many of the species of the animal kingdom and how these are struggling for survival and many are endangered.  

It would be a huge loss if these animals were to become extinct, so our next step would be to make sure we use products that have not impacted on forests and these special creatures.  We need to make sure that we don't support the killing of our animal kingdom.  

Math Magic

Strategy Sharing

This week we are sharing our math strategy learning by showing that we can use the strategy.  Here is an example of what we did.

My next step is to be quicker at creating these examples of my work.

Our Classroom Environment

Class Expectations

This week we are looking at our schoolwide expectation for our classroom environment.  We had to reflect on how we have been going with this and what we intend to do, to make sure these expectations are met and shown every day.
Here is Deegan's example:

We used information from our school expectations pack and also our own experiences.

Our next step is to make sure we actually show this expectation and not just say it.

Do you have any helpful tips for how we can make a better classroom environment?

Asking Questions

Question Time

Our value this week is asking questions.  We will be using this slide to help our learning about why asking questions is a good skill to have in our learning.

In Te Rōpū Whakamanawa, we will be using questions to support our learning in our Street Art and Inquiry Topics.

Tongan Language Week

Malo e lelei

This week we celebrate Tongan Language Week and will be learning some basics.  This is the learning slide that we will be using.

We will share some of our learning on individual student blogs later in the week.

Be Positive...Always

Using Venngage

Today we learned about looking good online.  This means, being positive in all that you do online.  We learned about Venngage and used this creative tool to show different ways to stay positive and safe online.  This is an example that Miss Waho used to show us:

My next step is to get quicker at using Venngage and see what else I can use it for.

I got the information about this from the Uru Mānuka Learning site.

What do you think is the most important thing about being polite online?

Our Names Our Place

Learning The Names of Our Spaces

This week we have been learning the names that have been given for the spaces around our school.  We did an assessment to see what we knew.  The highlighted sections are the ones I got right.  We then went through the names and meanings and I have changed it so all of these are in the correct order.

My next step is to use these names more often.

I got all of this information from Te Ara Takitini site and we worked together as a class.

What could we do to help remember all of these names?

Post for Penny

Shout Out to Penny

Today in blogging, we learned about being positive online and how positive things can grow but so do negative ones.  We created a Shout Out to somebody in our lives.  We watched how to do a Screencastify and how we can post it to our blogs.  

Here is Miss Waho's model and a shout out to Penny.

Next time I do a Screencastify, I will think and plan what I want to say and be clearer in my explanation.

I took photos from Penny's Facebook page.

What other ways can I be positive while online?

Creating Quality Blog Posts

Blog Posts

We are learning to create quality blog posts using a rubric.



I have not used a rubric before.  I would like to be in the green part of the rubric and be a smart learner.  I think I am in the orange section at the moment.  

We are using the information from our Uru Mānuka Smart Learner resources.

I would appreciate knowing what you think I could do to be a better blogger.

Te Ara Takitini Names

What Do Our Names Mean?

This shows what our names in Takitini mean.

Our next step is to learn the meanings for home base classes in Te Ara Whakatau.

Be Organised

Our Values Focus~ Be Organised

To start our term off, we have a focus on being organised this week.  Today in Whakamanawa, we viewed our shared slide and then created our own list of things we need to do to be organised.  We did our individual ideas on paper and then co-created an online version for our whole class.

Some examples of our work ready to be put into Topic books.

Our class list for ways we need to improve our organisation and being ready to learn.

Dance Darlings

Dancing Like the Stars 2019

In term two, we have been working with Shawn from Bollywood Dreams to prepare for Dancing Like the Stars.  Here is a bit of a snippet of how our dance journey has gone.  We are still working through it and getting ready to perform so will add the relevant clips as the times come up.

Our Te Reo Māori Assessment-Example of blog post expectations for Whakamanawa

Our Term Two Te Reo Māori Assessments

In term two, we have been using Digital Learning Objects to see what we know and what we need to know in Te Reo Māori.  We did as much of the task as we could and Miss Waho highlighted the ones we got correct.  We then did some research and learning to find out for ourselves, what the correct words were.

Here are some of our learning objects.

OBJECTS

At first, I didn't know many but now I know half of them.  

My next step is to use these words during the day at school.

DAYS OF THE WEEK

We use the days of the week every day but I found that I don't know all of them.

My next step is to be able to say these without reading them or using a chart.

ADJECTIVES

We use adjectives a lot when we do our morning roll so I was confident with this.

My next step is to learn the words for sweet, new and warm.  

Takitini Gardeners

Gathering in Our Great Garden

This year, Kaitlyn our Pikorua Youth Worker has been working with a group of students from Te Ara Takitini in our school garden.  Over the years it has been a struggle to keep on top of the workload having a garden creates so it has been wonderful having Kaitlyn and this group of students working out the back on a weekly basis.

This week, we organised for the garden crew to share their work with Te Rōpū Whakamanawa.  They gathered from across the hub and explained what they had been doing and what they have been growing.  We have also been lucky enough to have their chives seedlings on our windowsill so we have noticed the sprouts popping up this week.

The crew then took us out the back and explained what they had been working on and what their plans are.  We are all now anticipating the growth of the purple carrots.

We also wandered down to the school orchard and had a look at what was growing there.  We saw a few feijoas growing and since they look a little scrawny at the moment, the garden crew got set up with a watering can with our beautiful worm wee to help give them a bit of a boost.  

Our next step is to see what we can do to help create this space into an area where kids can enjoy and help our garden crew along their pathway as they refresh this area, learn about conditions for planting and grow some edible treats along the way.

Collaborative Art

He aha te mea nui o te ao?

In term one, Te Rōpū Whakamanawa created a collaborative art work showing what we value the most, which is people.  We felt like this represented who we are and what our school encompasses.

Finally in term two, there was a window of time that allowed Miss Waho to mount and display it.  Check it out...

Group Work

Getting Going with Group Work

Each we we have a school wide behaviour expectation to focus on and learn about.  During Samoan language Week, our focus was on group work.  

In Te Rōpū Whakamanawa, we did a Samoa Information Hunt in groups.  We discussed our expectations and how we could make a group task successful.  In groups that were selected by Miss Waho, we had information cards and puzzle pieces to complete using the information on the cards.  We needed to use communication and organisation skills in order to complete the task.  

Here are a few pictures of what we did:

The resource we used for our activity.

Each person has a section to complete.

Students had to work together to find relevant information.

Some sharing of resources and information.

Miss Brown checks out some of the work happening.

Heads down and into the activity.

One group managed to complete their puzzle and mounted it to coloured paper for display in our learning space.  We will continue to work on these until they are completed and ready for display.

More Samoan Language Week

Sharing and Sampling Some Samoan Food

To celebrate Samoan Language Week, we decided to try a few Samoan foods.  We ordered some panikeke, sapasui and Dominick's mum made up some koko laisa.  At lunch time, we shared the panikeke with all of Te Ara Takitini so everybody could try some.  Whakamanawa added some sapasui to ours.  After lunch, Dominick's mum brought in a pot of koko laisa for us to try also.

Here are a few pictures:

Oh my yum!  Panikeke!

Beautiful manners as we serve.

Sapasui and panikeke went really well together.

Thumbs up all round.

Sapasui sampling.

Here's to koko laisa at school.

Enjoying some koko laisa as we read.

Sapasui time.

Kian made sure we all said 'Fa'afetai' as he served our kai.

Dominick and Cayleigh did an amazing job of serving and cleaning up.

Whakamanawa feasting time.

Koko laisa time to wash down all of the panikeke I ate.

For next year's Samoan language Week, we will get enough panikeke for all of the school to try.  They were divine.

Welcome Miss Brown

Our New Guest Teacher

In Te Rōpū Whakamanawa, we have a guest teacher with us until Week Nine of this term.  Miss Brown is a student learning to be a teacher through Grad school.  She has been with us for two weeks and the time is going by so fast.

Miss Brown enjoys our Cultural Diversity Day

We are loving having Miss brown here and we are enjoying the things she is teaching us.