Celebrating Term 2

 

Contexts for learning

 Over the past few weeks in Autahi we have been connecting some of our learning to the upcoming Matariki celebrations. In this blog we will explore some of the things we have been doing around the classroom to use this context for our learning.

Our Oral Narrative (check out this great blog to learn more about Oral Narrative) this week is connected with different stories about Matariki. We have been reading and unpacking 'The Seven Kites of Matariki' and using it to connect with other stories. 

Flit the Fantail provided us with the inspiration to explore leaf rubbings to capture a Kawakawa leaf. We then added the Pleiades star cluster on them so that they can be used to spot the Matariki stars in the early morning.

Matariki is about celebrating with friends and family, so we added these beautiful leaves into cards for some special people in our lives. It was also a good chance to practise the features of a card like writing who it is to and from.

Connecting our culture to our learning is important too and we have been learning about similar celebrations all around the world. Both connecting with the stars and the idea of a New Year.  

Finally we haver been writing about Matariki while we practise writing 1-2 quality sentences. Each of the Matariki stars represents something and each provides lots of great oral language and themes for writing. Waitī and Waitā connect with our inquiry as the stars that represent fresh and salt water. 

Mānawatia a Matariki! We hope you all have time to connect with your friends and family this Matariki holiday and look forward to continuing our learning next week!

What makes a good friend?

 We have been exploring the topic of friendship as part of our Positive Education programme this term.

The beginning of a school journey is full of new people and new opportunities to make friends. We hope that these lead to life long connections with each other. But how do we help to foster the pro social behaviours that lead to strong connections with each other? 

Here are some of the things we have been up to:

We collected our ideas about what we think a good friend looks and sounds like.

Our poster is up in our play area so we can check in on it if we get stuck.

We share with our friends and use teamwork.

We can read a book together.

We can draw together.

We can build together.

Autahi are on a journey to be the best friends that we can be!