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 🌿

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.

Hanging Baskets

Today we finally got to pot up the hanging baskets that Mrs Cutler bought waaaaay before lockdown.  We used to have hanging baskets but the plants kept dying because we didnt have a proper watering system.  We tried really really hard to keep them alive!

This time the hanging baskets are different, they hold water a little better and we decided to put different plants in them.

We chose succulents because there are lots of different colours and shapes AND they don't need a lot of attention to live ... a bonus when we still haven't sorted a watering system.

We have learned about how succulents have 'pups', and how they can grow from a leaf!

We love to beautify our school and we cant wait for our succulent baskets to take off!