Titiro whakamuri, kōkiri whakamua: celebrating our whānau Haerenga

Titiro whakamuri, kōkiri whakamua

(Learning about our past to move forward into the future.)

Ko Ranginui ki runga 

Ko Papatūānuku ki raro 

Ko ngā Atua ki waenganui

Tēnā Koutou

  

Nei ra te mihi ki a koutou ngā Mana Whenua o te rohe nei - Ko Te Ātiawa. 

Ngā mihi nui ki a Taupuruariki Brightwell me ngā Kura Ahurea mō a rātou mahi toi me nga pūrākau me te kōrero tuku iho e pā ana ki a wahi whakahirahira - Ko Whetūkairangi.  

I te tau 1842, E ai ki ngā Ōhākī o Te Rangatira - Te Wharepouri, I muri nei, kia pai ke aku taonga Māori, taonga Pākeha, kia tae ake te haruru o tō reo ki ahau i Te Reinga. 

We would like to acknowledge Te Ātiawa and their work through the Kura Ahurea programme and Taupuruariki Brightwell.  This artwork helps us tell the stories and learn about the history of this special place and its surrounding areas including the people that came before.  

In 1842, Te Wharepouri, a great rangatira from Te Ātiawa left a wish for us all .  "After I have gone, be good to my Māori and my non-Māori, let the thunder of your voice reach me in the spirit land. "

The ōhākī ensures that these stories and facts are shared with our kids so that they are understood and can be shared with whānau.  

How fantastic to see so many of our Worser Bay whānau joining our Haerenga this week.

We live and work in a very special place where we experience the awe and wonder of Whetūkairangi on a daily basis. The natural beauties of this place are matched by fascinating mythological and historical stories that surround it.

Our teaching team have been working with Te Ātiawa and Taranaki Whānui - Mana Whenua on a programme called Kura Ahurea. There are many variations of the pūrākau that are told differently across iwi and cultures. But these are the stories that have shaped our place here at Whetūkairangi, and also wider Te Whanganui-a-Tara.

Some of the art on display was created by Worser Bay students in response to their learning. But the wonderful black, red and white art is the creation of the artist Taupuruariki Brightwell and Kura Ahurea. 

The pou in our courtyard are our anchor point for how we connect to our stories, and also the land, sea and sky. We began at our pou together, before exploring the wealth of artwork and information on display around the school. This was a chance to hear, read and retell and the stories of how our environment has been shaped by natural and human forces. History, mythology and immense geological happenings are all in the mix.

By clicking on a QR code, we were able to hear some of our stories being retold by our students: we hope to add more to this library.

With our stories in mind, we headed to the lookout and then down to Worser Bay beach, viewing and visiting many of the places that appear in the stories we had been sharing. 

We are learning more all the time and and are keen to share and continue to build our knowledge and understanding. So this Haerenga is just the beginning.

We will send the links via seesaw so that you can hear our recordings and view some of the resources and beautiful artwork again.  You can also scan the QR codes that are dotted around the school.

"Tuia ki runga, Tuia ki raro,  Tuia ki roto, Tuia ki waho, 

Ka rongo te pō, Ka rongo te Ao 

Haumi ē,  Hui ē , Tāiki e"

Little Hands - Big Measurements!

We have gone to great lengths in Autahi this week - we have also gone to great widths, great weights and great capacities, as we experimented with measuring!

Our maths curriculum requires children in year 1 to know that:

• Length is the distance between two points.
• Weight is how heavy something feels. 
• Capacity is the maximum amount of liquid a container can hold. 

and we have discovered that there are so many fun and exciting ways to explore these elements of measurement!

First we measured up and tackled the concept of length! We did this by comparing different lengths of ribbon and play dough 'snakes'. We discussed the terms that we could use when comparing the lengths of these objects, such as, "longer than" and "shorter than".   

Next up was the heavyweight champion of measurement - weight! We held out our book bags to compare different weights, and then we explored further with play dough and scales - we discussed the fact that a bigger object does not automatically make it a heavier object!

Lastly we simply couldn't contain ourselves - it was time to learn about capacity! We did this by discussing what we could fill up with water - a glass, a bath a sink - and what word we could use when there was enough water in it (full). Then we got outside and labelled different containers of water as 'holds more than' and 'holds less than'. We even knew that when a container was almost full, we could label it as 'half full'. 

So next time you're cooking dinner, washing the dishes, or driving from one place to another, have a chat with your tamariki about measurement, and see if they can share their learning with you!

We are storytellers: gearing up for our Haerenga

In Autahi, we are all about stories. We love to hear them and we love to tell them. Our students are still in the early stages of learning to read, meaning that you could argue that we have an oral storytelling culture in Autahi. Stories are such a powerful way to pass on knowledge and build understanding, so it's no accident that oral storytelling has long been foundational in cultures all over the world.

Later this term, we'll be setting out on our Haerenga and we hope you'll join us. We've titled it 'Titiro whakamuri, Kōkiri whakamua': it's a journey around our place to learn about our past to move forward to the future (check the Newsletter for details). Beginning up at the school, we'll make a short hīkoi to explore some of our local stories. 

In Autahi, we're focussing on the story of Tara, the remarkable person who made the first permanent settlement in Wellington. This allows us to dig into some exciting themes from the Social Sciences curriculum. It's a story that shows us how things change over time, how humans relate to and rely on their environment, how the first people discovered and settled Aotearoa. 

To whet your appetite, here's some visual storytelling from Autahi. Based on our learning, we have made two panels. One showing our place now, and one showing how our place here at Te Whetūkairangi was after Tara chose it as his pā. Pop by to Autahi to see them on our wall and we'll tell you all about what we've discovered so far.

The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra with Music and Emotions!

This week, we were incredibly lucky to be a part of an online workshop with Chris from the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Joined by violinist, Liz and flautist, Johanna, we explored a world of sound and emotion, even creating our own music using body percussion! 

Through the story of 'Murfitt the Mouse', we practised matching our facial expressions and movements to the 'happy,' 'sad,' and 'angry' tones of the instruments. Inspired by Murfitt’s journey, we got busy writing our own stories about him!

We encourage you to listen to some music at home with your tamaiti and talk about the emotions it stirs up!

Our Inquiry: timelines

 

Autahi took some first steps back in time this week as we began our local history Inquiry. This inquiry will likely stretch over a long period of time as our local area is rich with pūrakau, legend and historical happenings. But, to begin with, we are focussing in on some learning about the place where our school now stands. 

Inquiry is a style of learning that builds on a child's existing knowledge base by encouraging them to questions about a topic, pursuing knowledge through exploration and experimentation, review their findings and perhaps ask more questions. In other words, it's a never-ending cycle of discovery!

In Autahi, we aim to build our students' inquiry skills, such as how to ask questions, observe closely, gather and record new information. We try to be responsive to our students' interests as we go along. This means that we don't have a fixed roadmap of where we are going. But, at the same time, we aim to fuel the Inquiry by offering new information or experiences to help build knowledge or spark Curiosity. 

This week, we tackled the concept of time. It's tricky to talk about things that happened in the past without some sense of how time passes: sometimes it can be hard to get a grip on what happened last week, let alone 800 years ago.

This is why we've been playing around with some timelines this week, starting close to home with a timeline of how people grow up. What order should we put the pictures in? What came first, next?

We built on this foundation by beginning to look at some images related to our history over the last thousand years or so. We included a recent photo of Autahi so that we could locate where we are now on the timeline.

As we tried to place them in order from oldest to newest, a rich conversation developed. It was exciting to hear our Autahi students thinking like historians and evaluating the evidence in front of them. Is it a photograph? Is it black and white and what might that mean? What about pictures that aren't photos? What are the people wearing and doing? What order should the different waka/boats/planes go in? 

We still have plenty of questions about this and will need to return to our timeline We may move some of our pictures as we learn more...

With our time line to help us, we will begin to think and ask questions about now and then at Whetūkairangi.

We're looking forward to sharing our learning with you at our upcoming whānau hīkoi (check the Newletter for details). In the meantime, come and check our our timeline in Autahi and see what order you would put our pictures in!

Music and Movement Breaks

We know that it can be challenging to sit still for long periods of time. That's why in Autahi, we've been exploring different ways to wiggle, stretch, stomp and sing with lots of musical movement breaks!

Music & movement have been very popular in Autahi this term. We have enjoyed exploring new songs and new musical instruments, as well as learning dances and ways to move our bodies. All this music and movement is also helping us with our learning, as having short opportunities to burn off our energy and have a little fun, mean that we can sustain our focus in the long term. 

Going for a little run in the morning is a great way to wake up our bodies and our brains, but sometimes, the weather doesn't play ball and we have to find other ways to energize ourselves. We have found that dancing has been a really great way to get us ready for learning, while still having fun! You may have heard us talking about milkshakes, waffles, pizza and broken eggs - despite sounding a bit random, this has been one of our favourite songs to boogie to!

For the times when our energy is through the roof and we need help to return to our learning brains, we have been exploring yoga poses and breathing techniques.  Poses like downward dog and spinal twists, paired with rainbow breathing, have worked a treat for helping us to calm our bodies and brains so that we are ready for learning. 

You can try any of these music and movement breaks at home - ask your tamaiti to share them with you!

The Power of Yet: what to expect in your Goal Setting meeting

'Learning to be a learner' is an on-going theme as children grow through our school. This includes setting personal goals (big and small), strategies to break down big goals into smaller steps, and also embracing the struggle that comes with learning something new.

Term one Goal Setting is a chance for our Autahi students to begin to think and talk about what their personal goals are and how they will work towards them. 

Before our Autahi students start school, they have already learnt to do lots of hard things, such as walking and talking. This learning took lots of Bravery and Perseverance: our students are already learners.

We can build on this. In Autahi, we are just beginning to understand how we can set goals for ourselves, and work towards them through many small steps, called Kaisen Steps. As we achieve each small step, we can celebrate and be boosted to keep working towards the bigger goal.

 

A great example of this can be seen if you flick through your child's writing book. Each child has a 'micro-goal' for writing that they are working on. It might be holding their pencil in a pinchy grip or listening for the first sound in a word: bite-sized goals that build towards the bigger goal of writing 'one good sentence'.

. 

Keeping going takes Grit and positive self-talk can help. This is where the word 'yet' is so important. I can't play the guitar YET (but I will!). I can't read all the words in my reading book YET (but I will!). Tell yourself, 'I can do it!', 'keep practising!' and 'mistakes make your brain grow'.

Our Goal Setting meeting is a three-way conversation between child, parent and teacher. We have done some thinking and talking with our students about things they can do now, and things they would like to be able to do - but can't YET.

Our students' goals are often big and chunky. We will support them to think about how big goals can be broken down into smaller, bite-sized pieces (Kaisen steps). We will talk about who can help, what we can say to ourselves to keep going ('I can do this!'), and also some Character Strengths that we can engage to help us.

We are looking forward to sharing these conversations with you and celebrating your child's achievements day by day, week by week as the year progresses.