Te Hiku Movie Festival 2020

Our theme for the movies this year was “Life in Lockdown” or creating a music video. The movies have been played on the big screen at the Te Ahu Cinema in Kaitaia on Monday 19 October 2020. This is one of the lucky movies to be chosen from our school. Congratulations to everyone involved in the production of this movie. Please click on the link to view other Te Hiku Film Festival movies. Please enjoy and feel free to leave a positive, thoughtful and helpful comment below for the students.

Pompallier decided to create a narrative to go in a music video.

🧠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.

PCS Cross Country Day

 It is that time of year again!

Despite all the rain, the mud, the slips, the road closures the track on Mrs Cutlers farm was not muddy at all! While we missed the mud a little bit the weather was awesome and we had so much fun.

We are one of the few schools to still hold our own cross country races on a 'real' track.  Something we are very proud of 😁 We support each other, cheer on our whanau groups, encourage and celebrate in everyones personal successes.  There is always tuakana teina too when the littlest children in the school run.

Check out some of the pics from yesterday

Term 3 - The First Normal Term of 2020 😉

Term 3 already!
We are back and ready to carry on the great learning we had begun in Term 2.
This term we are lucky enough to have a student teacher, Mr Hobson, with us for the entire term.
Though this is our most normal term of the year so far, we have a very busy time ahead with speeches & cross country and lots of other tournaments
How is your term going so far?

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 🌿