Kia ora i te whānau,
We are continuing to make the most of working and playing both outdoors and indoors, as the balmy weather persists.
Literacy in Learning Through Play:
Our Learning Through Play photos focus on portraying the children as they engage in literacy-based activities. Reading and writing in a play setting ensures that the literacy learning is absolutely authentic in relation to that situation. The Literacy, in such situations, is driven by the children and represents a need that has presented itself in the play.
A Focus on Respect:
As a whole school, we have been putting even more of an emphasis on 'respect', beginning 2 or 3 weeks ago. We asked our children in Koru, what this word means, what it might look like, and what being respectful might sound like too. We have discussed who and what we need to show respect towards. Here are some of the thoughts that the children have come up with:
Jacinda visits Beckenham:
What a treat we all had at Beckenham last Thursday, when Jacinda came to visit us. She actually came in order to meet and speak with Lucy Gray, one of our wonderful Year 8 students, and our Strike 4 Climate organiser, and we were all lucky enough to be present when Jacinda arrived, and was introduced to us all by Lucy. You may well have read the full article about Lucy, and her hopes and dreams for our planet, in The Press yesterday. Our Koru children were incredibly lucky, because they were invited to sit at the very front of the area where Jacinda and Lucy were going to stand. The children all showed Jacinda their brightest smiles and most sparkling eyes (this, they practised beforehand!). Unfortunately in these photos you can't see the smiles or the eyes, but you may recognise the backs of some heads...
Maths Problem Solving:
The children are working extremely well as they challenge themselves and are challenged, at Maths problem solving time (or DMIC, which is the acronym for Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities). During this part of the day, we always place a big emphasis on our 'groups norms'. Our group norms are the ideas the children came up with at the start of the year, being those behaviours and attitudes which they believe they would need to display if they were going to be doing their best learning. Some of these behaviours include:
Handwriting:
We love handwriting time! The children show amazing focus and always put in impressive effort, under the watchful gaze of Bounce and Skip. We begin with finger strength and dexterity exercises, then we move on to practising picking the pen up and ensuring that our grip on the pen is correct, before beginning our letter formation practice. We are very proud of the children's beautiful work, and the progress that they are making in this area of their learning.
Ka kite koutou. We hope you have a wonderful week.
Ngā mihi mahana,
Jo, Stacey, Kristika and Elizabeth
We are continuing to make the most of working and playing both outdoors and indoors, as the balmy weather persists.
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| Long rope skipping: working as a team. |
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| Expert skippers take flight! |
Literacy in Learning Through Play:
Our Learning Through Play photos focus on portraying the children as they engage in literacy-based activities. Reading and writing in a play setting ensures that the literacy learning is absolutely authentic in relation to that situation. The Literacy, in such situations, is driven by the children and represents a need that has presented itself in the play.
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| The children love playing 'schools' (Yes! They come to school, and 'play' schools!) and at one point in the game, the question was posed: " Can we have our own modelling book, please?" |
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| A part of playing schools: practising handwriting... |
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| ...and reading. |
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| The children requested their own visual timetable, which they then trimmed and laminated for their own whiteboard easel. |
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| Here we are, awarding house points! |
A Focus on Respect:
As a whole school, we have been putting even more of an emphasis on 'respect', beginning 2 or 3 weeks ago. We asked our children in Koru, what this word means, what it might look like, and what being respectful might sound like too. We have discussed who and what we need to show respect towards. Here are some of the thoughts that the children have come up with:
- Tidy as your go (showing respect for our learning environment)
- Be polite and use good manners (showing respect for self and others)
- Be kind and caring (showing respect towards others)
- Work and play quietly indoors (showing respect towards others)
- Be helpful towards others (showing respect towards others)
- Be caring towards, and with, our resources (showing respect for our environment)
The children are very focused on the value of respect, and are making impressive efforts to display respect in many, many ways throughout the day.
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| Showing respect for our environment |
Jacinda visits Beckenham:
What a treat we all had at Beckenham last Thursday, when Jacinda came to visit us. She actually came in order to meet and speak with Lucy Gray, one of our wonderful Year 8 students, and our Strike 4 Climate organiser, and we were all lucky enough to be present when Jacinda arrived, and was introduced to us all by Lucy. You may well have read the full article about Lucy, and her hopes and dreams for our planet, in The Press yesterday. Our Koru children were incredibly lucky, because they were invited to sit at the very front of the area where Jacinda and Lucy were going to stand. The children all showed Jacinda their brightest smiles and most sparkling eyes (this, they practised beforehand!). Unfortunately in these photos you can't see the smiles or the eyes, but you may recognise the backs of some heads...
Maths Problem Solving:
The children are working extremely well as they challenge themselves and are challenged, at Maths problem solving time (or DMIC, which is the acronym for Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities). During this part of the day, we always place a big emphasis on our 'groups norms'. Our group norms are the ideas the children came up with at the start of the year, being those behaviours and attitudes which they believe they would need to display if they were going to be doing their best learning. Some of these behaviours include:
- smile at your buddy
- use your buddy's name when you are speaking to him or her
- help your buddy to understand
- be kind and caring
- take turns and share
- ask your buddy a question if you don't understand.
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| Two buddies smiling at each other! |
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| A great way of solving a tricky subtraction problem. |
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| Alex and Chester showed that this same problem could be written as an addition equation. |
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| Kiko and Natsune used the 100s board to help, as they went about solving the problem together... |
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| ...and here is their recording. |
Handwriting:
We love handwriting time! The children show amazing focus and always put in impressive effort, under the watchful gaze of Bounce and Skip. We begin with finger strength and dexterity exercises, then we move on to practising picking the pen up and ensuring that our grip on the pen is correct, before beginning our letter formation practice. We are very proud of the children's beautiful work, and the progress that they are making in this area of their learning.
Ngā mihi mahana,
Jo, Stacey, Kristika and Elizabeth
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