Te Ara Angitu is a group of Year 5 and 6 students at Ara Tū Whakatā Gilberthorpe School in Hei Hei, Ōtautahi, Aotearoa. Welcome to our blog where we share our learning throughout 2022.
You can also see sharing from Rimu and Whakamanawa students from previous years.
This year as part of our Community Inquiry and Visual Arts, Whakamanawa created chalk pastel sunflower art that we could enter into the annual Festival of Flowers hosted by the Wigram Lions.
We used this art to decorate our learning space, create calendar art and for the festival exhibition.
Check out our first-ever YouTube clip that also shows some of our photography entries that some students created during our time in our lockdown bubble.
(This is Miss Waho's first time uploading something to YouTube so we could have some background music).
Timed Prototec - Checking My Basic Facts Knowledge
Today we had a set amount of time to complete a Prototec Basic Facts session. We then all had to stop, take a screenshot and post this to our blogs so we could share how we went.
This week when we were working in our home base class, Whakamanawa created a collaborative piece of writing to share something about our holidays.
We each had a slide and specific learning outcomes and criteria. Throughout the week, we gave each other feedback and feedforward. We then edited our writing and focused on what we could do to improve the quality. Miss Waho then gave some more suggestions and we acted on those.
On Friday, we got into groups and read our writing to our partners. We gave a final piece of feedback and feedforward and discussed what it means to be able to work in a group for different situations.
We worked on our digital fluency skills and shared a screenshot of our individual work on our blogs.
Here is the slide we created:
Next time, we will duplicate our slides so we can show our before feedforward and the finished version.
To celebrate Te Wiki O Te Reo Māori, for Fun Friday, Miss Cabral and Miss Waho did a Māori Art and Fried Bread activity. Penny had to help Miss Waho out to make the fried bread throughout the day because she's got the skills.
Here are a few photos from the afternoon:
Have you tried fried bread before? If you haven't, you should.
This term our focus for Goal Setting is Steps Web. In July, I set a goal for the rest of the term. Today, I am checking in to see how I am progressing.
This is my July goal:
Today, in September/ Mahuru I have done 852 minutes. This means I have done @#$ minutes so I am on track to reach my goal. I will continue to do what I have been doing.
or
I haven't really done much so this means I need to do more Steps in my own time.
or
I have already reached my goal for this term so now, I can set an even higher goal which is to be on level $^(*) by the end of the term.
This year to celebrate Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori, our whole school took part in the Māori Language Moment. This was when we all stopped what we were doing and did something that involved any of the following: ako-learn, whakarongo-listen, kōrero-speak, tākaro-play, pānui-read, waiata-sing.
In Te Ara Takitini, we were in our Numeracy classes so our MLM was done with Numeracy teachers for 15 minutes. In Miss Waho's class, we ended up enjoying it so much that we were able to do something for all areas of focus.
We started by listening and watching the lyric version of Six60's song Pepeha. We talked about what the different kupu mean and made connections with our own pepeha learning.
We then went over how we ask someone how they are and selected three different responses that we could give. We connected with three different people and had a kōrero to see how we were feeling.
Kei te hia kau ahau.
Once we were all warmed up, it was time for us to read. We got out a selection of pukapuka and sat in an oval to have a browse and a read. We have such a good selection so it was great to see what words we recognised and read some texts in Te Reo Māori.
When we were tidying up our books, we learned how to say pass the book and to reply with here is the book. Homai te pukapuka. Anei te pukapuka.
When it was time to tākaro, we had a go at a warm-up from Māori Movement. This was new for us but we loved this and are looking forward to trying out more of these sessions. We can see and feel how good this is for our taha tinana.
For our waiata time, we looked through our waiata anthems slide and akonga chose to sing Aotearoa by Stan Walker, Troy Kingi, Maisey Rika and Ria Hall. This waiata is one of our bell songs at the moment and one of our favourites.
Our whole school participated in the Māori Language Moment this year and have shared our moments in a slide. Check out what else happened around the school:
Today's activities really made us realise that we need more of these moments. It has given us more motivation to be creating opportunities for us all to refresh, learn and grow.
One of the activities that Miss Cabral got Whakamanawa students to do, was about our favourite dogs. We then got to do a quiz that would show our dog matches. This is my future dog friend:
I thought this activity was really interesting. It shows all of the different things you need to consider before taking on the responsibility of owning a dog.
In 2020 when we were in lockdown, we created virtual Fish! Tickets to replace the paper tickets we use to acknowledge students for showing and growing our school values. This year, we decided to continue doing these because we have so many students who show great engagement as we learn and work from home.
For Whakamanawa, we also have Miss Cabral who has created a personalised ticket for sharing.
Here is our 2021 version:
If you haven't heard of the Fish! Philosophy, check it out on YouTube.
This year, our Daffodil Day activities have been put on hold so we can't shave heads until we all get back to school. Mr Huggins will have loads of hair by then.
In Whakamanawa, we have had a digital learning object with some activities to do that are based around Daffodil Day.
For our online fundraising, we have raised over $1000 for the Cancer Society. We are so pleased with our efforts and know that this number is sure to grow...kind of like Mr Huggins and his hair.
Check out our DLO.
Make sure you check out student blogs too because there are some cool Voki on some of the blogs.
This term we are really lucky to have Miss Cabral from the University of Canterbury. Whakamanawa is always keen to learn new languages and because Miss Cabral is from Brazil, she has started teaching us Portuguese.
Before lockdown, we started learning how to say hello and ask how people are. We also started learning how to respond by saying I am good thank you.
Lockdown has meant that we now need to learn in a different way to when we are at school so Miss Cabral has created a slide to help our language learning.
Today as part of Whakamanawa's distance learning, we started exploring the Arts section of our Takitini Site. We had a go at creating music using Incredibox and then sharing our mixes to our blogs.
In our class Meet session, some students shared their screens and showed the rest of us how to do it and what they had created. They were so cool that Miss Cabral and I were inspired and planned to have a go.
This is one that I had a play with and then used Screencastify to record it.
My next step is to try different types of music that this online app has.
We have been really impressed by the creative ways teachers are encouraging children to make lockdown learning fun and interactive.
Today, in one of our daily class Meet sessions, one of the students suggested that we do something involving challenges for Whakamanawa. We created a Google Slide and decided what areas of challenge we would have and came up with physical, creative, social and kindness.
We then decided that students can have a part in setting the challenges.
We all enjoy music and some music helps to get us through difficult times or allows us to reflect on things in life. Our moods and the way we feel can be influenced by music.
In Whakamanawa, we decided that we would share some of our current favourite songs that are helping us cope better during the lockdown.
This is a collaborative slide where we share music and explain something about what we like about each piece. Check it out.
Many people will be spending this year's birthday in lockdown mode and that includes our very own principal, Mr Wilkinson. Usually, if we were at school we would do something special and we are pleased that lockdown didn't stop us.
One of our students created a slide for each of us to share pictures and messages. we asked Mr Wilkinson to come to our class afternoon Google Meet. We all changed our profile pictures and turned our cameras off so when he arrived, he was greeted with this:
We played this version of happy birthday and had a go at singing altogether. It was a cool bit of lockdown fun and we all loved seeing our principal on his special day.
Going into our second lockdown has been a surprise that I think none of us was expecting. Whakamanawa has just got started on our online learning and communicating. We meet two times a day and have a few fun things planned. We are looking forward to getting back to school and ensuring that we make the most out of this experience.
Next week we are having student-led conferences. Our whānau are coming to school and we will be sharing some of the learning that we have done this year. This slide is the mahi that I have been doing:
Sources: Miss Waho gave us all the blank template that she created.
Reflection and Next steps: I am proud of the learning I have done. I am a little bit nervous about sharing this out loud so I will rehearse what I am going to say.
This week our values focus is Keeping a Positive Attitude. We created a Google Drawing with us in the centre, surrounded by things we can say or think to ourselves to help keep a positive attitude.
This is the example that Miss Driver created as a model for our class.
DIGITAL LEARNING OBJECT:
REFLECTION: I think we came up with some really good ways to keep positive in different situations. We can already see some of the kids in our class, using these ideas.
SOURCES: We found our information from each other and we used our school Values slide for tr Ara Takitini site. Miss Waho created the template for us and we personalised it.
QUESTION: Do you have any other ideas for how we can stay positive, especially when things get difficult? Leave your ideas in the comments below.
This term we have created SMART Goals. We came up with goals for Reading, Writing, Math and one other area.
To display our goals, we went with the reach for the stars theme. Because we don't have much wall space, we decided to use our windows and some duraseal. Here is the start of our class display.
This week's value is Being on Time. This is important for many reasons. We did an activity to look at how people may think of us if we are on time or if we are not. Here are my ideas about being punctual.
REFLECTION: I always try to be on time but the mornings are hard because I struggle to get out of bed. Hopefully, these ideas will help me.
QUESTION: Do you have any suggestions or ideas for how I can get up earlier in the mornings?
This week our values focus has been Having Fun and Celebrating With Each Other. We have done this by nominating each other for Fish tickets, being kind to each other, having free time as a class because we had been working well together and giving each other compliments. We have been recognising the great
Today, we are going to Wycola Park to have fun with each other because last term, our class earned over 3,000 Fish! Tickets.
At the start of the week, we created Google Drawings and learned some new digital technology skills. This was our criteria.
L.O. Identify ways we can celebrate the success of each other.
Digital skills~Use a checklist of skills to teach, try and peer assess.
DIGITAL SKILLS:
1) Change the background colour.
2) Create a different shape for each idea.
3) Use a different font for each idea.
4) Fill each shape with a different colour.
5) Increase the outline of the shape.
6) Make the colour of text different in each idea.
This week our value is to Be Honest and Truthful. The activity we did was creating a T-Chart to show what it is like when we are honest and when we are dishonest.
Reflection and next steps: Be able to seek the truth without being rude or mean.
On Monday, Takitini were very lucky to be able to go to the Christchurch Town Hall to watch an amazing show called Tūmahana. Tūmahana was the creation story told by the people of Kai Tahu which is the South Island tribe.
In the show we saw a narrator who was wearing a purple suit and told the story, hanging hoola hoops, silks, a trapeze bar and ropes. The actors were doing tricks and acrobatics. There were men fighting with traditional fighting sticks called taiaha.
The Christchurch Symphony Orchestra was playing the music throughout the show. It was amazing.
Shadow Dance
Reflection: I absolutely, positively loved that we all got to see Tūmahana. The show was visually unbelievable to watch and I enjoyed the story that was told through dance, storytelling, music and acrobatics.
In week 6 of term one, ten of our Year 6 students attended a training session to become Physical Activity Leaders. This role gives them the opportunity to organise and run physical activities at break times for other students in our school. We look forward to getting this started and thank Mr Boyd and Sport Canterbury for providing this training for us.
