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The end of an era...

Five students in Room 1 are moving on to Room 2 after the holidays.  Today they had a taste of Room 2.  They greatly enjoyed it!

I wish you all a great learning time in Room 2.

Our big learning theme for this term has been: Reach for the stars.

Or as the Maori people say:

"Whaia te pae tawhiti kia tata, Whaia te Pae tata, Whakamaua kia u, kia tina. Reach for the horizon, for the stars, to bring them close and to hold them tight." 

All around us we can see proof of this throughout the ages.  There was Kupe reaching for and navigating by the stars until he reached the shores of Aoteroa.  Then there was Rongowhitiao with his dream of starting a school.  And Clara Hazhard who had a dream of becoming the first female principal of New Zealand. Look and see all around you, and within you, what aiming for the stars in the past has given us today.

We have been aiming for the stars in class by learning about our solar system, by listening to Maori myths and legends about Ra, Marama, Papatunuku and Ranginui. 

Papatuanuku has always been one of  my passionate loves, one of my stars to reach for. Some of you might still remember that we reached for the stars when becoming an Enviro School.  With the help of Environment Waikato, this was in 2007, we investigated water quality in local streams and how to improve this. This was a term long school investigation, which was called “Rivers and us”. At the conclusion of this unit we were successful in acquiring funds to purchase our plant growing unit. With the help of the local Pokaiwhenua nursery,  who has been gifting us tiny native seedlings each year, we managed to plant around 400-500 trees each year.That’s quite a lot of trees, that’s quite a barrier against erosion and it increased water quality.

I fondly remember the many meetings my students had with Gordon Stephenson, who taught us much about local flora and fauna and weeds!  My team of eager students managed to get Bronze, Silver and then Green Gold status.

 

Art has always been my passionate love -  art in all its forms. Art is one of the the stars I have been reaching for and hold tight. We don’t know what jobs the future will require, what the future will even look like...  Nurture your art, reach for the stars. Nurture creativity in all its forms.  It makes for happy people and outside of the square thinkers.  It is what we need for a new future! Make out of old and create something new that touches your soul – and others! Reach for the stars!

In Room 1 we have been reaching for personal stars, learning stars,  self assessing our work and reaching and aiming higher and higher, improving all the time as we go. 

You do not need to be a student for this,you see, teachers, your Principal, your Board, and your parent support group are also aiming for the stars. To be the best, to teach the best, to learn the best, to give the best.

On a personal level Ievel I am also aiming for the stars.  When we came to Aotearoa so many many years ago, we had a dream of living of the land, of being self sufficient of making and creating.  Life got in the way, there were many different stars to reach for.

Now we have come back to our original dream.  of moving onto our land,  of building a little environmentally friendly house on our land, which we have called "Wawata"…"Day dream"! Another star to reach for.

I wish you all well, keep reaching for those stars, nurture your special talents, be passionate about the arts.be different, be creative... be a maker and a shaker, our future needs you!

Kia kaha Waotu friends!

Happy Matariki everyone!

This week's free writing in Room 1

Students reviewing their work...

Reach for the stars

Learning about Marama, who is at the center of our Solar System!

And learning about Vincent Van Gogh and his life story...

Matariki...

Some of our Matariki work and a wonderful book we used as inspiration for our writing and art works.

Writing in Room 1

Students in Room 1 love to write!  They come in early in the morning and start writing straight away! They write messages to each other, ‘reports’ for parents and each other, messages for parents, and the most loved activity.... free writing!

A long story by Louis about him and his Dad visiting the moon...

No time to take my bus vest off,  I must write!

Mindfulness for children

Here is the link to a great article:
https://www.kidsmatter.edu.au/mental-health-matters/mindfulness

Student agency

Below is a link to an excellent explanation of ‘student agency’ by Karen Boyes, a New Zealand  educational guru!

Student agency


...and here are classroom samples of student agency!

Kindness

This week our school value we are learning about is 'Kindness'.  The Ministry of Education has developed an animation to learn about Kindness.

Oat the Goat

Art appreciation...

We are learning about Vincent Van Gogh.  We wrote a story about his life and we are making a painting like Vincent’s Starry Night Sky.  Here is some of our work!

Adjectives and specific verbs....

We are learning about adjectives and specific verbs in a bid to lift the ability to write rich sentences.  Here is some of our work.  We did a bit of drama before we wrote a variety of sentences using different verbs.

 Here are our adjectives we chose after going on an adjective hunt in class.

Space... Reach for the Stars!

We have been learning about Space.  Here are some of the facts we remembered!

We have also talked about astronauts and why they need protection in Space. Here are all the Room 1 Space Ship Commanders!

Our helper...

Every Wednesday morning ‘Gran’ comes to Room 1 and helps us with our reading, writing and maths.  Thank you Gran, you are a Super Gran!!

Hand writing

This term we are going to work hard on our hand writing skills.  When writing we need to make sure we start each letter in the right place. If your child is able to write the letter 'c' the right way they will find it easier to learn the following letters: o, a, d, g, q.  We call that letter 'Caterpillar C'.

All letters start from the top except 'e' and 'd'.  You will find helpful hints in the Home work books. Your help would be much appreciated!

There are many free apps that you can download for your child to learn the correct letter formation.  One of the apps that I like is 'LetterSchool - Learn to write'.

Term 2

Great news for Room 1!  This term we will be exploring space!

How New Entrants can check their learning ...

... and find their next step or ask for new challenges when their new learning has been successful.