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.

Term 2: Pacific Voyagers 

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.

Term 3: Autahi Cloud Appreciation Society + The Arts Celebration

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. 

Term 4: Marine Reserve 

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! 

Ngā tamariki a Tangaroa - Writing about inquiry

  Writing about inquiry - Ngā                                           tamariki a Tangaroa

Our recent trip to the Taputeranga marine reserve has inspired us to try some writing about our favourite sea creatures. This has strong links to our Inquiry around Tangaroa, Tane Mahuta and the creatures of both the forest and the sea.

First we needed to draft what we wanted to say and then conference with a teacher to help with any words that could be fixed up.

Then we set out to publish our draft to make the amazing bits of writing showcased here on the blog and on display in the classroom.

Our goal was to publish a piece of writing and one of our key learnings was that fast doesn't always equal best when it comes to quality work. A good reminder for us all to slow down and appreciate our work in order to produce quality.

Junior Athletics 2023

 

This week Autahi and Tautoru got outdoors to get into some Athletics. Alongside some supportive seniors, we raced over hurdles, balanced items on spoons, threw bean bags into buckets and leaped in the long jump. 

The positivity was flowing as cheers of 'You can do it' rang out as the competitors gave it their all. The goals for the day were to try your best and have fun.

The New Zealand Curriculum outlines some key learning experiences

• Develop a wide range of movement skills, using a variety of equipment and play environments.
• Participate in a range of games and activities and identify the factors that make participation safe and enjoyable.

We take part in regular P.E. sessions and learn about ways to move your body as wells as learning new games that encourage participation. We also learn to give things a go and support each other to try our best.

Check out the different activities here:

The bean bag toss had different levels of challenge to stretch everyones skills.

Leaping through the air on the long jump!

A careful balancing act.

These sprints were neck and neck!

Finally we finished it all with an obstacle course around Big Kids Playground. It is so nice to get out and about in our space and move and play.

Autahi and Tautoru visit to Taputeranga Marine Reserve

In both Autahi and Tautoru, we have recently been using Atua as the foundation for our Inquiry. Exploring the realms of different atua has given us rich opportunities to learn about the natural world around us and perhaps view that world in a different way. 

This week, our visit to Taputeranga Marine Reserve was full of great learning about Tangaroa and the children of Tangaroa, the creatures that inhabit our ocean habitats. The Marine Education Centre at Taputeranga is devoted to the sea life of our local coastline so we were learning about creatures that we can find around Worser Bay, too.

Here is a selection of photos from our trip to give a flavour of what we saw. Doctor Victor encouraged us to be explorers, find out new things, and ask lots of questions - and we did!

Visiting the Bait House

Here, we had the chance to get hands-on with some sea stars, anemones, kina, crabs and other creatures.

Doctor Victor showed us how to use our hands like scoops to very gently pick up the animals so that we could take a closer look at them without harming them.

A cushion star and a big sea star.

This beauty is a snake star. We had to be extra-careful when picking it up to make sure we were supporting its body and legs from underneath.

Rockpooling

We also had to chance to explore the rock pools beside the Bait House. Look what we found!

How cute is this little crab?

And how lucky are we to get to spend time learning together and having fun in this beautiful spot?

We have questions!

 

Check out our Character Strengths poster, and you'll see that Curiosity is one of our key strengths. It lives in the 'Wisdom' category, alongside Love of Learning, Judgement, Creativity and Perspective.

Curiosity is one of the Strengths that drives learning by Inquiry. Our students need no encouragement to ask questions. We can help them to refine and shape their questions. Broad, open questions can be particularly useful as we begin an Inquiry, helping us to find out what we know already and what our lines of inquiry might be. As our Inquiry progresses, we might choose questions that pinpoint specific information that we want to know.

This term, our inquiry into Atua is taking us into the realms of Tangaroa and Tāne Mahuta. Autahi students are keen to know more about the children of Tangaroa and also of Tāne Mahuta. Our visit to Taputeranga Marine Reserve gives us an opportunity to find out more about the children of Tangaroa that live in our local coastal areas.

In preparation for our trip, we have been generating and collecting questions about the crabs, anemones, sea stars and other creatures that we will encounter there.

We are excited to ask take our questions to Island Bay with us. There will be plenty to discover. We should find some answers - and we will probably come back with a whole lot of new questions, too!