Friday 15 March 2024

Positive Education in Autahi

 This week we held the pleasure of sharing our Positive Education bedrock with our school community. While this has been a part of our schools kaupapa for many years it is always great to reflect and share the 'why' behind it all.



So this weeks blog will give an overview of the 'why' and show how we approach some of the big concepts with the learners in Autahi.

In a nutshell, Positive Education is an embedded programme that teaches a variety of tools and skills to equip people to flourish and weather challenges that they may face. All of this is backed by science and research that support this approach. Think of it as tools for resilience and growth, something we always wish we had more of I'm sure. 

These tools support our learners, teachers and community to think optimistically, bounce forward (not just back) from setbacks and learn from our mistakes.  

One area of Pos Ed is character strengths. Each of us have our own strengths and being able to identify them and use them effectively is important. Knowing when we are overusing them is just as important too.

You hopefully will have seen these around our school, either on posters on walls our scattered in key locations in the playground. More importantly you will hear them being talked about around the school and in our community. Even better you might have heard the around the dinner table.

These are just a selection of strengths that we focus on and serve as a guide for us to help navigate different situations. In Autahi we have been learning about a few of these strengths that have helped us so far. Things like Bravery, Perseverance and Curiosity are key for those first few weeks of school. We dial up our Bravery when we say goodbye to our whanau in the morning and we dial up our Perseverance when we are trying to write the words we want to make a story.


We unpack what each of the strengths represent.


And what the strengths might sound like around our community.


As well as picture ourselves when we use the strength.

There is so much more to Positive Education and we have only just scratched the surface. Our school website has more information as do our classroom blogs. We will share more over the year with some examples of the learning going on in Autahi.

If you have any questions then we encourage you to come and talk with one of our amazing staff. We would be happy to help and chat about our Pos Ed programme.







Tuesday 5 March 2024

Our focus picture book: lots to unpack and enjoy

In Autahi, we love picture books. We take every chance we can to share them, from snack time stories to end of the day picture books. Sometimes we have a guest storyteller, too.

An important part of our Literacy programme is our focus picture book. This book is carefully-chosen because it is rich with story features, juicy words and ideas for us to explore. We take a whole week to fully unpack what the book has to offer, returning to it daily to explore new themes. Sometimes our focus picture book connects with our Inquiry topic. It might also provide inspiration for our writing. 

Our book this week is Henry's Map by David Elliot.

Henry's Map by David Elliot - Penguin Books New Zealand

Here are some ways that we are using this delightful picture book to help with our learning.

1. Getting to know a character

We learn a lot about Henry in this story. We are told some things explicitly. Other details are there to be discovered by reading attentively and noticing clues, such as what Henry says and does, and how others respond to him. Also, since this is a picture book, we use our visual literacy skills and look closely at the pictures. Reading for meaning is a bit like detective work: we teach our students how to gather information from small details.







It is also important for our students to learn that the people who do things in stories are called characters. That way, they can identify who the characters are in tales of different kinds. They can also enjoy intentionally creating characters for their own stories.



2. Exploring the Setting

Setting is another technical word that we want our students to understand. The setting is where the story happens. In Henry's Map, the setting is the farm where Henry lives and it forms an important part of the story as Henry sets out to map his home.




3. Links to Inquiry learning

As part of our current Inquiry, Ko Wai Au, we are beginning to explore the places that are important to us and our whānau. Henry's Map offers the opportunity to explore maps and mapping our special places, just like Henry does.



4. Vocabulary building

Our focus picture books have rich vocabulary-learning opportunities for our students.



Henry's Map has a sophisticated text with many beautiful examples of metalinguistic verbs. These are verbs that refer to how a person is speaking. While we don't expect our students to know this terminology yet, learning words like 'whinnied', 'mooed', 'bleated' and 'squawked' gives them new and varied ways to express themselves.


On this page of Henry's Map, we have juicy words like 'dashed' and 'clutching' to explore. We take time to explicitly explain the meaning of new words. The story provides a helpful context, showing how they can be used. In this way, we see our students building their oral vocabulary. Over time, this rich language finds its way into their writing, too.














Thursday 29 February 2024

The Daily Draw

 In 2022 in Autahi we had a hunch about our writers and developed an inquiry to get to the bottom of it. We noticed that there were a group of students who would choose to come in and draw pictures every morning before school started for the day. The same group of students also had a refined pencil grip and found forming letter shapes correctly easier than their peers.


This sparked the idea for the daily draw. Devised as a way to encourage everyone to have a go at drawing every day and practise having a pencil in hand. Each day we have a new picture that learners can copy or use as inspiration for their own drawing. 


We always start with shapes and lines to help build up their drawing skills. Shapes make up everything we draw and also tie into the letter shapes that we practise every day.


Check out our shapes from earlier in the week!


The impact of drawing every day helps all learners develop pencil skills that support them across multiple avenues of learning. People who would never choose to draw suddenly want to be the next person to make the daily draw. 
Over time we see a gradual change towards more confidence in visual art and writing. It's amazing how a simple task can bring so much learning and so much fun!
Look out for the daily draw in your child's school bag and have fun drawing at home.


Thursday 22 February 2024

Where does Maths happen?

In Autahi, we are an energetic bunch! We like to get active when we are learning. This means that for us, Maths can happen just about anywhere.

On the Mat

Even when we're indoors, our Maths is action-packed, with plenty of opportunities to move and collaborate together.

Here we are in class playing a counting game with lots of opportunities to move and jump.


In the Garden

 

The Autahi garden has big blackboards, making it the perfect place to practice writing our numbers.


Outside Autahi

Stretching - and practising our counting - after having a run. 


At our tables...

... with lots of fun materials to help with our learning. 



We're using our fingers as well as materials to show our ideas.


Out in the Playground


This game combines counting and different ways to move across the playground, such as hopping, jumping and taking giant steps.





All this activity is grounded in UDL (Universal Design for Learning). This pedagogical approach responds to children's individual communication styles and preferred ways to access learning. For our energetic Autahi students, engaging mind and body together makes learning more accessible, memorable - and fun! 




Thursday 15 February 2024

I can do it vs I can't do it yet

 As we delve into the world of goal setting at Worser Bay School, we have to think about how we can break down the language of goal setting for our youngest learners.

The way we approach it uses two key ideas. There are things I can do and things I can't do yet but I want to keep trying. This helps us to focus on the things we have strengths in or might have already worked hard to master in the past to help us with the things we want to achieve in the future. 

Here are some examples of things in Autahi that we Can do!


And here are some things that we Can't do yet and we want to keep working hard on.



We are looking forward to sharing some more goals with our whānau next week and working out how we will achieve them together.

Friday 9 February 2024

What's on in Autahi: daily and weekly routines.

Kia ora and welcome to our Autahi Blog for 2024!


Throughout the school year, we use our Blog to capture our learning, trips and experiences. There will also be some Blogs exploring the educational ideas and research that lie behind the ways we work at Worser Bay School, including Positive Education. We hope you'll find our Blog a useful resource.

We're kicking off with a handy reminder of some of our daily and weekly routines.


Every Day

There are a few things that your child needs to bring to school every day:
  • A sunhat with a wide brim (in Terms 4 and 1, your child will only be able to play outside if wearing a hat).


  • A water bottle.
  • A full lunch box. 

In Autahi, we have a snack, morning tea AND lunch. These can all be packed in one lunch box.


  • A book bag.


  • A change of clothes in a named bag. Sometimes our students get wet or muddy while playing, so it's good to have clothes to change into. It's best to hang this on your child's peg and leave it at school where it can always be available.
The school day begins 8.55 a.m., but it's always good to come a little early and take some time to reconnect with friends and have a play. The classroom is open from 8.30 a.m.





Weekly

Monday

At 9.00 a.m. on Mondays (weather permitting), we start the week with whole-school Karakia. Whānau are warmly invited to join us. 

Tuesday

Tuesdays in Autahi are Toy Tuesdays. Your child can bring a toy to share and play with at school. We often take the opportunity to involve the toys in our learning, too. It's a good idea to choose a toy that's not too tiny, precious or noisy!

Tuesday is also sausage sizzle day, available weekly. Order a sausage for your child's lunch on Kindo.

Wednesday

Wednesdays are Wheels Wednesdays. Your child can bring a scooter or skateboard to play with on Bottom Court at Morning Tea and Lunchtime. Please bring a helmet. Elbow/knee pads are also advisable for skateboards. 

Once a month, a pizza lunch is available, cooked in our Wood-fired Pizza Oven (weather permitting!). Check Kindo to make your order.

Thursday

On Thursday afternoons, we welcome our Rising 5s to Autahi.

Friday

We begin Friday's with Karakia. Several times a term, we have a whole-school Assembly at 9.00 a.m. on a Friday. Please do join us for a celebration of our learning and a song or two. Keep an eye on the Newsletter for dates.

Finally, Friday sushi lunches are available for order on Kindo. Yum!








Thursday 7 December 2023

Autahi 2023 - The Highlight Reel


 
Like all great TV shows we come to the end of our season and look back in fondness with a highlight reel of some of our favourite moments. The time goes by so quickly and it is great to look back on where we have come so far in this journey. I'll leave links to some of our past blogs to check out along the way.

Term 1: Goal Setting and the Power of Yet


 

We started the year with our Learner Attribute: I am a Goal Setter. We worked together to work out what was on top for our learners. I'm sure we ticked off many of these goals.


In Term 2 we started to explore pacific voyagers and how groups of people migrate around the world. We went on a trip to Te Papa and even built our own Waka.





In Term 3 we looked at the sky and explored the ground under our feet as we learned about Ranginui and Papatuanuku. There was a lot of data gathering to do with clouds and it all came together at the Arts Celebration. We learned new ways to share the information we had learned through the medium of visual arts. 




What an amazing day it was when we visited Taputeranga marine reserve. We have been exploring the creatures of the forest and ocean and this was an an incredible, hands-on experience. 

What a year we have had! These are only a few of the many highlights and we look forward to hearing yours!