Autahi's Centennial Reserve adventure

We are so fortunate that the location of our school makes it easy for us to find different ways to connect with the natural world. The beach of often our go-to, but we also have areas of regenerating bush nearby, such as Centennial Reserve.

This week, on a beautiful, sunny day, we headed off for our walk to the Reserve. The walk there and back is always a good challenge, with plenty of opportunities to use our Perseverance to 'keep going' all the way.

When we got under the shade of the trees, we found that the replanting of the ngahere is really making a difference, with much thicker bush and plenty of birds to see and hear, including some boisterous tūī and pīwakawaka flitting about. As we ate a well-earned morning tea, there was also a chance to try some kawakawa tea while sitting amongst the kawakawa bushes.

Then, we had plenty of time to explore and appreciate the ngahere, noticing the plantlife, birds and also little bugs and beetles. At our recent Whānau Days, we have learnt some ways to use drawing and mark-making to notice and appreciate the places we love. We used the rubbing technique we practised with Fiona to capture some textures and leaf shapes that we found.

Reflecting on our time at the Reserve, we agreed that it was exciting but also made us feel calm and relaxed. The bush worked its magic on us. We're sure to return there soon for more adventures.

Autahi Arts Celebration 2025

 This week we will let the Art speak for itself. Thank you to all who came along to celebrate the achievement of our our Autahi cohort. Enjoy the photos!

'Autahi splashed paint and weren't sorry!' Getting excited about our Arts Celebration.

 

We have been working on our Arts Celebration project for more than a term - and the big days are nearly here! We have been exploring the ways we can make paint move and also move our bodies while painting,  taking a little inspiration from Jackson Pollack along the way. 

We are super-excited to share our creations with you. Here's a little teaser.

Unmissable, right? Join us for the Arts Celebration on 9th and 10th September between 5.30 and 7 p.m. to take a wander through our spaces and maybe even try a little splashing, dripping and spraying for yourself.

Exploring our local library

 This week we ventured down the hill to visit our local library.  One of the many highlights of the week is our visit to the school library to explore our collection of books. Many of the Autahi learners choose to buddy read throughout the day and even spend part of their lunchbreak in the library.

So it made sense that as the weather was turning to some sunshine that we got out and started exploring our local community and the library is such a good place to start.

 As a class we wrote a letter to our school librarian Kirsten to tell her about the kinds of books we like. Exploring genres that allow us to dial up our strength of Curiosity and learn more about our interests. 

In Maths we collected data about what we were looking for in books and did some sorting of that data into whether it was fiction or non-fiction.

At the library we went looking for all of the different kinds of books we might like and even issued a few for us to enjoy in the classroom. Beth and Carl picked out a few for us to use for our oral narrative in the classroom over the next few weeks. For more about Oral Narratives check out this blog here.

We had such a great time at the Library and we encourage you and your whanau to check out some books together too!

Building place value houses - and number sense.

 

At our Celebration of Learning this week, some of our Autahi students shared their learning about place value houses. This is an essential piece of conceptual understanding that will enable our students to work with numbers of all sizes, in all kinds of ways, in the future. Here's some background on how we're working on this with our students. 

Our number system is based on groups of 10. The number 10 is made of 10 ones. 10 tens make 1 hundred. 10 hundreds make 1 thousand. Using this system, we are able to represent very big numbers and decimals, too. But, to work meaningfully with these numbers, we need to have a clear understanding of what they mean.

This is especially true because we represent all numbers using the digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. In a three-digit number, the numbers that digits represent gets bigger by a power of 10 with each step to the left. For example, reading right to left, 111 is composed of 1 unit, 1 group of ten and 1 group of a hundred. So the 1 in 100 does not mean the number 1: it actually means '1 group of a hundred'.

In a number like 604, zero is playing a role as a 'place holder'. In this case, there are 4 ones, no tens and 6 hundreds. Without the zero, the number would read 64, which would change the 6 into 60 instead of 600 (incorrect by a power of ten).

 

In Autahi, we use physical materials to help our students to grasp these important concepts. In this photo, some of our students are filling up a tens frame (comprised of two rows of 5) with counters to make a group of 10.

We progress from here onto working with with teen numbers, before gradually moving onto twenties and thirties. Here, we're making bundles of 10 pencils. These bundles can be used as groups of ten to build numbers like 15 (1 group of ten and 5 extra ones) or 23 (2 groups of ten and 3 extra ones).

On this chalkboard, the tens house (marked with a t) contains bundles of ten while the ones house (marked with o) is home to single sticks.

By drawing a place value house, we are able to use these materials to represent the numbers we are working on. We learn that ones go in the ones house until we have 10 of them. Then, they become a group of ten and can go and live in the tens house. Once we have 10 groups of ten in the tens house, they become a group of 100 and must go and live in the hundreds house.

Some students will also begin to use place value to help with with addition and subtraction calculations, often with a hundred square for support. A good knowledge of place value helps them to calculate, but also to estimate and have a sense of what answer they might be expecting from a calculation, so they know if they are wide of the mark. The aim is to build firm foundations for a lifetime of working - and playing - with numbers.