🧠BRAIN BUILDING🧠

 In Kakapo class we have been learning all about the brain.  Today we got into groups.  Each group was given a different part of the brain to focus on.  Cerebrum, cerebellum, brain stem, amygdala and the temporal/occipital lobes.

Each group had to read through and choose the information that related to 'their' part of the brain.  After identifying this information the groups dicussed which information was important.  They conducted further research to answer any questions they had or anything that they may not have understood.

THEN... Mrs Cutler gave each group playdough. Each group had a different colour.  The task was to use the playdough to create their part of the brain into a 3D model.  For this each group had to collaborate further to check position, scale and to join them up to build our brain.

In Class Mahi Tahi

Even though we are in Level 1 - we have decided not to engage in Mahi Tahi with the three senior classes for the entirity of the term.  So... this week Kakapo had a contract activity that was Mahi Tahi as we know it..but with only our class.

The task was to create a functioning water wheel using only a selection of resources and supplies - rubber bands, skewers, balloons, paper plates, paper cups, tape, hot glue, straws, egg cartons.

 

This task required all of the 4 Cs (Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Communication and Creativity).  The main communication came when groups were planning - there was a lot of discussion around everyone's understanding on what a water wheel was and its purpose.

Check out the video of one of our water wheel designs and see the individual blogs to find out how Kakapo Kids found this challenge. 

Figuratively speaking....

This week, Kakapo have been working on Figurative Language.

We have been doing a few different tasks focusing on our learning about metaphors, similes, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia and idioms. 

Powerful Paragraphs 💥

In our literacy warm up's we have been looking at an image.  We use the photo to write a moment in time OR describe what we see.

We look carefully at the photo using our senses.  We look with our maths eyes.  We look with our imaginations.  We look at the small details.

We have ten minutes to write.  After we have written we have time to check back over our paragraph.  We share and discuss.  We share the figurative language we have heard.  As an audience could we imagine what was happening? Were we hooked? Did we want to know more...

We then have some time to rework our paragraphs.  We are trying to improve our paragraphs by checking for language features and organisation, spelling, punctuation. Do we have different sentence types to add interest?  

We share with a buddy and check again.  

Idioms 📕

In our contracts there has been a different idiom.  Without googling or asking someone we need to explain what we think the idiom means.  Our first idiom was "never judge a book by its cover"  

Poetry Bus Stop 🚌

We had five different poems spread around the room and a information chart of figurative language. We read the poem and discussed as a group what language features we found in the poem.  Then, Mrs Cutler would yell "BUS STOP" which means we moved to a different poem.  We could go to whatever poem we wanted to each time we moved.  This was a fun way of identifying language features.  

Check out our individual blogs to see some of our Powerful Paragraph examples! 

Emotion Wheel

This week one of our contract tasks was to think about what colours & patterns came to our mind when we thought of these emotions:

Excitement * Sadness * Happiness * Anger * Pride * Scared

We had to think of ways to represent what each of these emotions mean to us and translate that emotion into art.

The instructions were to only use colour, pattern, shapes and symbols to represent the feelings. No cartoons, faces or words.

This is what each member of our class came up with.  Have a look - can you guess which emotion is which?

Float, Float, Float Your Boat ... ⛵

For Mahi Tahi last week Mrs Cutler gave out this challenge...

This task required all of the 4 Cs but especially Critical Thinking and Communication.

The time limit was a challenge but the boats that were created were amazing.

We looked at the successful designs and discussed why and how they were successful.  We did the same for the unsuccessful boats. Photos to come!

Mahi Tahi 2020

For those of you who are new to our blog, Mahi Tahi is where the three senior classes come together and work on a range of tasks. We chose the name Mahi Tahi because it means 'working as one'.  We used to meet twice a week, but this year we have two new teachers in the senior syndicate.  So while Mrs Cutler is the "Original", this year she is making sure we ease into the learning for everyone who is new to Mahi Tahi ... the teachers, new students and the year 5s.

Search our blog with 'mahi tahi' to see some of the awesome activities and learning we did in 2019.

During Mahi Tahi we learn about the four C's.  Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking and Creativity. The activities range from STEM to baking to art to school beautification to maths challenges.  Children are grouped randomly - we do aim to have one person from each year level in a group.

The aim is to instill 21st century skills in a way that every person gets to shine, take leadership, share ideas, follow leadership and practice the 4C's.  Now that you know what Mahi Tahi is - keep an eye out for some 2020 Mahi Tahi posts!

Te Hiku Manaiakalani Outreach 2 First Movie Festival

This year has been our first Te Hiku Movie Festival, the movies have been played on the big screen at the Te Ahu Cinema in Kaitaia on Thursday 7 November. This is one of the lucky movies to be chosen from our school. Congratulations to everyone involved in the production of this movie. Please enjoy and feel free to leave a comment below for the students.

Take Note! 💰

Tui class have been learning about NOTEworthy people in NZ. We started with the people on our NZ money.  

Sir Edmund Hillary, Kate Sheppard, Queen Elizabeth, Apirana Ngata & Ernest Rutherford.

We read, researched and wrote autobiographies before looking at how the landmarks and birds on the notes also relate to the person.  Through our literacy contracts we got into groups and researched each note and created a wall display showing our learning, pictures and quotes.

We began to ask questions about other NOTEworthy New Zealanders.  We did a bus-stop activity with several other NZers - from Jean Batten to Whina Cooper.  We were brimming with knowledge and questions.

NOW Tui class are designing their own $200 note.  They are choosing their own NOTEworthy person, landmark and bird.  Once they have designed their note they are writing to explain the reason they chose who and what they chose. 

Keep an eye out on the individual blogs to see their amazing creative $200 note designs!

Monsters vs Aliens

This morning Tui class had a mystery activity to complete.

1. Children were put into pairs

2. Pairs were split, one person to one side of the room, the second  person to the other.

3. The class were told their activity was a surprise so they had to stay on their side of the room and ensure their backs were to their buddies and their work was hidden.

Have I given you a hint about what the lesson is about?  The children were a little scared as to what was going on but excited too!

4. I took each group outside separately and gave instructions.  They were designing a creature however they liked, using whatever colours, shapes and sizes they wanted.  They had to think about what features they would want included.  One group was told to draw an alien, the other told to draw a monster.

5. The groups went and created their assigned creature.

Then.... 

6. Once the pictures were finished, children were told they had to write a title "How to draw my..." 

7. Children then had to write instructions on how to draw their creature.  They had to think about how they drew it.  Instructions would need to be clear and detailed.  

How would we know we had been successful? 

8. After we had completed our instructions, the pairs were reunited and swapped books.  Each person was given a new piece of paper.  Following their buddies instructions they drew the creature.

9. Once completed, the buddies presented their pictures.  Did they look the same as the original creation? 

Why? Why Not? 

10. Reflection time! Were we successful? Why? Why not? What would we change? What might have worked better if we were to do it again? Are instructions important? Why? 

This was a fun activity with some awesome learning.  Check out some of our examples below!