He Puna Tārei, Room 5; Year Four

Going under water is a valid and genuine fear for some of us. Check out this amazing achievement from one of our students... We are incredibly PROUD of your achievement, Agent B!!

Team Challenges provide SO much learning! Quite apart from all the problem solving and social learning, they also give us a cool, shared experience to write about at writing time.

On Wednesday, the children competed in a team challenge. They had to pass water over their heads to their team mate in order to get as much water from one bucket to the other as they can.  Check out the mayhem!... It might not look much like 'learning', but the children are learning all sorts of things! Such as SOCIAL LEARNING - e.g., Can I get on with my peers, especially when under pressure to perform? Can I cope with failure? Can I persist with challenges?  PROBLEM SOLVING - e.g., Can I learn from what strategies are ineffective and adjust my technique in order to be more successful? As well as  WRITING - Can I write a fun and engaging RECOUNT about this shared experience that will put a picture in the reader's mind? Learning was never this much fun when I was at school! said Miss Swanston.

Follow our journey into the past where we 'speak of days gone by of New Zealand' - 'Kōrero o Ngā Rā o Mua o Aotearoa.' This learning has been inspired by 'Tuia 250' - the nationwide commemoration of the 250 year anniversary of James Cook's arrival, forever changing the landscape of our home. The children have been adding to the classroom TIMELINE and SLIDESHOW  (click on link to see slideshow) as we progress in our knowledge of Aotearoa from 1,000 years ago to present day...

"Can we play Noggle at Maths time today, Miss Swanston?" "Yes, Nate, Bhakthi and Lucas, you sure can!"   Kids, you blow my mind with this amazing maths thinking!! Your NEXT challenge is to PROVE to a buddy that your number sentences are correct. Do you think you can?! :)

Shipwreck!! "Oh no you don't, Stella! Quit stealing my treasure!! You don't stand a chance because I'm as fast as The Flash!" screamed Drake. Who knew 'writing' could be so much fun?! Carlton kids do! :) Creating a fun, shared experience so we can practice becoming great authors of 'RECOUNT WRITING' *If you want to learn more about this process, click on this   LINK . There you can track the learning journey as we develop our ability to articulate ourselves effectively through oral and written language.

We are learning water survival skills. The children have been learning how to skull with their arms. They are learning they need to be efficient with their movements so they don't become too exhausted to keep going if they were ever to find themselves in deep water.  "If I paddle too fast I'll get too tired to keep going! We have to stay calm and try not to use up too much energy," said Bhakthi. By playing games like 'horse racing' and 'tag' while sitting on their flutter boards, the children are getting valuable learning and opportunity to practice while having FUN! :)

"How could we figure this out?!..." "What about if we put money into 5 groups of $42 and then count how much that adds up too?"  "Lets try that..." Could YOU work this out?... *I bought some furniture. There was a lamp that cost $42, a mat cost half the price of the lamp and a table that cost 5 times as much as the lamp. How much did each item cost and how much did I spend altogether? Yes we can! :)  -by working together, thinking flexibly and creatively, and persisting :)

Could YOU build a tower from spaghetti, a few mini marshmallows and a bit of masking tape??! Week 9 - Term 3 The children had to work together in teams to try to create a structure strong enough to support one (full sized) marshmallow. The winning team's marshmallow would be the one furthest from the floor. Check out some of the pictures (below). *FOR MORE PICS GO TO THE PHOTO GALLERY ON THE KŌTUITUI WEBSITE* Learning... persistence - patience - resilience - communication - problem solving and learning from mistakes and /or  experience - physics - geometry

This morning when we got to school we were in for a BIG surprise... The children enjoyed writing stories to explain what had gone on in their akomanga (classroom). Here are some story samples...

We used our knowledge of Te Reo Māori to name our taniwha creations. "My taniwha is Parihaunui," said Bhakthi, "because he has big wings." "Parihau means wing and nui means big in te reo Māori." "Mokomokonui is my taniwha because I love lizards and he is a lizard too! Mokomoko is the Māori word for lizard," said Alex. "My taniwha has eaten ten people! So her name is Tekaukai. Tekau means ten and kai means eat," said Tivaniq.

"He aha he taniwha?"  We have learnt that a taniwha is a kaitiaki, a guardian. They are a good luck charm for their people... but others need to watch out because they are very loyal and protective! We created our own, unique taniwha art works to show everyone what our taniwha looks like. First, we designed two taniwha with pencil, then chose our favourite design to reproduce and drew that onto big art paper. Over top of the pencil sketch, we drew black sharpie.  Next, we chose some parts to colour in with crayons or pastels.  Last, we used dye to complete our art pieces.