🧠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.

CHANGE of plans 🌎

In Kakapo we have decided that its not good enough to just KNOW about the problems facing our world...WE NEED TO TAKE ACTION!

After reading one of the texts (Down the Drain) on our contracts this week our discussion turned to sustainable practices.  Small choices that we can make that could help the world overall. This led us to talk about the packaging we have in our lunchboxes and the products we buy in the supermarket.  By choosing products in glass bottles instead of plastic, compostable boxes instead of plastic wrappings and bags is a small step but one that could convince companies to make changes.

We talked about the local businesses we knew that used paper straws, cardboard takeaway containers or paper bags.  We are choosing to support those businesses over others that use a lot of plastic.

One example Mrs Cutler asked us about was McDonalds.  What did we notice about their packaging? McDonalds is a major company with restuarants all over the country and they dont use paper straws.  So what can we do about this?

We are investigating ways to promote the businesses using sustainable products and practices and encouraging other people to support these businesses as well.  We hope that this is a positive way to get other businesses to change their practices too.  We are writing persuasive letters to McDonalds main office in NZ to ask them to consider a change in their packaging.

This is a little different than some of the learning we had planned to do this week, but that happens! It is ok, we are leading our own learning.

WATCH THIS SPACE - KAKAPO IS TAKING ACTION!  MORE UPDATES TO COME!

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. 

🌿 Rainforest Art 🌿

Lately, Kakapo have been looking at environmental sustainability and deforestation.  This led our inquiry to the rainforests of the world.  

From this, we looked at different rainforest plants.  Kakapo kids had to choose rainforest foliage to draw as their background.  We used crayon and dye. 

We learned:

• about foreground and background
• how to create depth and realism using colour (darker for objects further away and lighter for objects closer)
• layering for a 3D effect
• Adding detail and texture for realism

After our backgrounds were ready we researched birds that life in the rainforest.  Using the same learning, we created our birds adding detail with colour and texture.

We made our birds sit off the page to add realism and a three dimensional effect.

Our art is on display at the front of our class.  They are vivid and bright green against the navy walls - just how we think the rainforest would look. The photos don't do the art justice! Check out our individual blogs to read more about our integrated learning and see our art a bit closer 🌿

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! 

🦋🦋🦋

Last week when we arrived back at school, some students noticed that the swan plants had grown a lot over the lockdown.  They were healthy and big with caterpillars AND there were several chrysalis hanging in the plants and along the fence and classrooms.

We shared with the school to be careful and only look at them - no touching!

The following day, the same students watched a butterfly hatch.  They noticed another chrysalis was black and looking ready to hatch.  They set up an ipad to video the hatching.  The girls decided that a time lapse went too fast so they videoed with the idea of speeding up the footage and adding music once the butterfly had hatched.

The girls were SURE the butterfly would hatch soon..but when they checked every 15 minutes or so...still no butterfly! At lunchtime they ate next to the ipad to make sure nobody accidentally knocked the camera.  After lunch there was still no butterfly!

The end of the day arrived and all the children had to go home, luckily one of the girls is Mrs Cutler's daughter so she was able to stay and watch the camera and the butterfly because she did not have a bus to catch.

Finally the time came and the butterfly hatched!

The girls communicated all evening, sharing footage and deciding how they would edit, and what music they would add.

The next day the movie was sped up and shared with the school.  The girls also decided to take photos of all of the stages to share the butterfly life cycle with the junior classes.

The incidental learning that came from noticing chrysalis was huge! The school enjoyed watching the video, the junior classes especially.

Concrete Mural

One of the tasks I assigned the Kakapo Class this week was to create a concrete mural.

This could be on their driveway, a footpath, the path to the clothes line...anywhere they had a patch of concrete.  If children had no concrete they were tasked with problem solving this.  What else could they use?

We looked at examples of murals and how they were different to a regular chalk drawing we might do.

I will update this post when more concrete mural creations are shared.  Check out the individual class blogs also!

Kakapo Confessions

We read William Carlos Williams poem "This is Just to Say" about him admitting, and apologising for eating plums without asking. We discussed what it means to admit or confess something.

Kakapo kids brainstormed their confessions and ideas.

Using a similar format to Williams poem, children wrote their own poems.  We spent a lot of time re-working our writing to ensure we had interesting words that created a picture for the reader.  For example - rather than using 'yummy' to describe a chocolate, 'gooey' was used.

When it came to publishing our poems the criteria was to use a background image that related to their confession. The font had to be readable - so we had to think about the background picture.  Can the words be seen with a different colour, or was a bolder font or highlighting needed?

Children worked on a shared document to publish their poems.  There was a few challenges around this (such as accidental deletion of slides) but these were ironed out quickly luckily.

We really enjoyed reading each others poems.  We have given each other feedback and have reflected on things we may change if we did this task again.

You can read the poems by checking out the individual blogs.  We'd love to hear what you think so please leave a comment!

Fantastic Fonterra! 🥛

Today we had a visit from a Fonterra milk tanker. We learned all about how the tankers collect the milk from the farms and how they keep the milk cold on the journey. We heard about the sustainable practices that the Fonterra factories do. It was really cool to hear from the dairy farming families about cows and milk. Everyone got to have a close look at the tanker and the machine that monitors the milk. There were a lot of sore ears after everyone honked the horn!! Here is a picture of some of our students and the tanker.

Everyone was lucky enough to receive some yummy flavoured milk from Fonterra too. After the visit Kakapo kids had lots of questions about milk production, export and sustainable businesses. We continued with our own passion projects around these questions and presented them in different ways, sharing our learning with the class.

Amazing 🤗, Scary 😯 and Relaxing😴

Welcome to Term 4!

This morning I asked the Tui Team to share something amazing, something scary and something relaxing they did in their holiday.

This was a great way to recap our break with our class - I have to say there were some responses I did not expect! I actually thought some kids were playing a trick on me... bungy jumping and sky diving..really!? 

After thinking, then sharing, the children blogged about their responses.  Check out their individual blogs for some amazing holiday recaps😊

🌏 Google Earth 🌏

Following on from our landmark learning - today Tui had a go on Google Earth!

It was so fun looking at the landmarks we have been learning about and seeing it in "real" life! 

We had great discussions and people shared information about the landmark they researched. While we were looking at the Eiffel Tower, Lily told us that there are two elevators in the 'legs' of the tower.  Raidon shared that the Taj Mahal is referred to as the worlds biggest onion.  Looking at the Pyramids of Giza started lots of chat around how the pyramids were built so large and accurately and without technology or machinery!  We talked about pharaohs, mummies and tomb raiders.  

After we looked at the landmarks we knew about we brainstormed other places in the world we might like to look at on Google Earth.  From here, Tui kids went and had a look at Google Earth themselves.  They had a play with the different tools and looked at other places like the Great Wall of China, Times Square, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace.

We are opening our eyes to the big wide world and thinking about the places we might like to see in person one day 😀

Check out the Tui kids individual blogs to read about the places they looked at on Google Earth.

What in the world would you like to see? 🌏

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!

The Call of Abraham and Sarah

Today Tui class were learning about Abraham and Sarah from the book of Genesis. 

Abram and Sarai lived in Haran.  They had been married many years and had no children. One day God said he wanted them to move to a new land and that he would make their family a new nation of people.  Abram and Sarai trusted God.  After travelling for a long time with all of their belongings, their animals and servants they finally arrived in the new land of Canaan.  God said that he would give this land to them both and all of their descendants. Together, Abram and Sarai wondered how this promise would come true because without children there are no descendants!

Many years passed and still there were no children for Abram and Sarai.  Abram told God how disappointed he was.  God told him to go outside and look at the night sky.  God said "count the stars if you can, you will have as many descendants as there are stars in the sky".  He said that Sarai would give birth to a son whom they would name Isaac.  God also gave them new names - Abraham and Sarah. 

One day, three visitors arrived at Abraham and Sarah's tent.  The visitors were welcomed and given food and drink.  Afterwards the men talked to Abraham and said they would be back when Sarah had given birth to their son.  Sarah overhead this and was laughing.  The men asked Abraham why Sarah was laughing saying "is anything too hard for God?"  It was then that Abraham and Sarah realised their visitors were special messengers from God.  Nine months later God's promise was fulfilled when they became parents to Isaac. 

Tui class have retold this story through animation.  Look out for their creations on their individual blogs!  

Sandra Silberzweig Inspired Portraits

Sandra Silberzweig Inspired Portraits
Kaitaia, 2019
Indian Ink & Chalk Pastel on wet strength cartridge
laminated for preservation

Bright, bold colour broken up with pattern and negative spaces.  Learning included (but not limited to) researching the artist and her inspiration through literacy, investigating shape, pattern and lines through maths, delving into colour (primary, secondary, warm, cool & complimentary) and coping with temperamental indian ink and messy, smudgy, chalky pastels

Check out the Tui Teams individual blogs to learn more!

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!

   

Human Digger Track

Today's Mahi Tahi task (where the Year 5 - 8s come together each Tuesday to work as one) was to create a human digger track.  All of the team had to be on the inside.  The track needed to be strong and the team had to communicate effectively to ensure the track moved them from one end of the court to the other. This task required critical thinking, communication and collaboration.

We saw the tracks being strengthened by folding paper, adding extra layers, laying paper over top of the joins in a brick like fashion. 

When everyone had finished we had groups test their tracks in our Mahi Tahi Space - Piwakawaka.  Then those that were successful went out to the court to race! It was great fun to make these and work together - we were really successful! 

🌟Matariki 🌟

Matariki is a cluster of seven stars within the Taurus constellation (it is really made up of several hundred stars but we can only see seven with the naked eye). In New Zealand it is also known as the Maori New Year.  The word Matariki translates as 'little eyes' (mata riki) or 'eyes of God' (Mata ariki).

We have speeches coming up so we have been learning about persuasive writing.  We decided a great topic would be "Matariki should have its on public holiday". Once we decided our position we started brainstorming.  Everyone had the same opinon that we SHOULD have a public holiday for Matariki.  We feel that Matariki is an important celebration that is unique to NZ.  We thought that people should have the time to get up to view Matariki, share stories and food, dance and celebrate together. We celebrate many holidays that are not as relevant to NZ like Guy Fawkes so why not have another day for Matariki.

We have published our letters and are sending them on to try and persuade the government to our way of thinking! Watch this space 😋