We give things a try!

 Last week we kept the school open later than usual to host our parent community in some Positive Education workshops. You can find a link to all the presentations here. Positive Education Workshops

The children in Autahi were excited about their whanau coming into school to do some learning and wrote some invitations.

A lot of the learning that happens in the first year at school is being experienced for the first time and this means we are constantly asking learners to give things a try. This can be anything from letter formation to strategies for adding to throwing and catching a ball. 

So alongside all this learning we have to balance this with learning about how we can manage these new challenges and have some fun while we are doing it.

The Autahi learners off to give things a try!

In our classroom you might hear the phrase "Mistakes help your brain grow" or "At school we give things a try". These handy phrases help us to see new things as something we can give a go and start on a pathway to learning. 

Research shows that pushing ourselves to experience new things is great for our brains. New learning involves a process of giving things a go and then practicing that learning to form pathways in our brains. The more we practise, the stronger that pathway becomes. 

Below are some mini challenges that you could try. You never know what you might discover when you try new things!

• Try sitting in a different place at home or in the office.

• Take a different route to a familiar place.

• Brush your teeth with the hand you don’t usually use.

• Try listening to a different genre of music.

• Give a new food a try.