Ready, set, fire! The Autahi Slingshot Project

This week, Autahi investigated measurement by building recycled bottle slingshots! Using blueprints from Lorraine at the Wellington City Council, we transformed plastic bottles, rubber bands, and string into awesome launching tools.

Navigating our slingshots wasn't easy. We quickly realized that we needed to dial up our Perseverance, Creativity, and Teamwork, as well as use our Growth Mindsets if we were going to make them work!

Once we felt like professional slingshotters, we put our skills to the test, using our measurement skills to see exactly how far our paper balls could fly!

We discussed how we could go about measuring the distance that our paper balls would shoot. Some idea we had were: 

- measuring with the length of our feet 

- measuring with glue sticks

- measuring with interlocking cubes

- measuring with rulers (who would've thought!)

- and finally, measuring with the height of Jude!

As you can imagine, our last idea was the most popular. After firing away, Annie and Jude would mark the spot where each paper ball had landed. From there, we estimated how many 'Jude's' the distance would be. I think our record was three Judes long!

As exciting as using the slingshots was, we also learned a very valuable lesson; that things do not always turn out as we hope. For every short, underwhelming shoot that we shot, we had to remind ourselves about our Growth Mindsets. We had to tell ourselves 'Keep trying! You will get better with practice'. 

Although we had many 'Jude' length distances being measured, we also had some glue stick length distances as well and that was fine because everyone gave it their best shot!

We are sure you'll have plenty of 'slingshotting' taking place around your whare over the next wee while!

Teamwork in action, down at the beach

Earlier this term, we explored some of the history of Te Whetūkairangi Pā, where our school now stands. We learnt about how Tara founded the first permanent settlement in Te Whanganui-a-Tara/Welllington on this site. More recently, we've been focussing on building our awareness of our Character Strength of Teamwork: what we each bring to our collective and how we can play and work together.

This week, we brought together these two threads of of learning with a trip down to Worser Bay Beach. Working in small teams, our goal was to show our learning about pā by building one on the beach - a 'sand pā'. The pā had to include whare, māra kai, fences and defences. We also talking about shaping the sand into hills and mountains so that our pā could be built in safe places.

We thought about the kinds of jobs we would need to do in our teams. The children decided who would be builders and diggers, and who would be 'finders' and decorators, adding other materials such as shells, sticks and seaweed to complete the picture. 

Here are our pā engineers at work and sharing their creations with each other. We're sure you'll agree that great Teamwork leads to some beautiful creations!

The Right to Write!

In Autahi we have been dialling up our Strengths of Creativity, Love of Learning and Humour in writing. Based on Rod Campbell’s Dear Zoo, we wrote about our own pets.

To begin our writing, we check what important ingredients are needed to write a good sentence:

• Finger spaces.
• A capital letter at the start of the sentence.
• A full stop at the end of the sentence.

Sharing ideas is an important part of our process, as well as saying our sentence out loud. Before getting started, we often also draw a picture plan. This helps us remember what it was that we wanted to write about in our sentence.

A big part of writing is being able to hear the sound that each letter makes so that we can spell words properly. If we are not sure of a sound, our teacher can help.

Some of us dialled up our Perseverance to write more sentences! After describing our pet, we wrote whether we would keep them or not - just like in Dear Zoo.

Writing can be really tricky because there is so much to remember! But with our Creativity, our Love of Learning, our Humour and our Perseverance we can become the finest of wordsmiths!

All the ways to be smart

As part of our deep dive into Teamwork, we have been reading 'All The Ways To Be Smart', by Allison Colpoys and Davina Bell. 

 

'All The Ways To Be Smart' is a lively exploration of how each one of us brings something different and special. 

 

When we're part of a team, we bring our 'ways to be smart' to the group. More different 'ways to be smart' make our team stronger.

 

 

We have been exploring our personal 'ways to be smart' through drawing, painting and writing. Our individual artworks will together to make one, big piece of Autahi team art. 

 

 

All our individual pieces of art working together make the collaborative artwork extra special. Visit Autahi to enjoy our completed artwork and see all the different 'ways to be smart' that we bring to our Autahi team.

Teamwork in Action!

 They say "Teamwork makes the dream-work" and we have definitely been seeing that as we dial up our strength of Teamwork in Autahi! 

Through our story for the week, Frederick by Leo Lionni, we learnt that not everyone in a team plays the same role. In fact, we learnt that each of us brings our own special strength to our Autahi team. 

Some of us use our Zest and Humour to keep our teams spirits high!

Some of us use Creativity and Curiosity to inspire our team!

Some of us use kindness by making sure that everyone feels included!

The first group of 'lookers' viewing the creation & a team of 'builders' re-making the creation with their 'lookers' support. 
 

We then practiced our learning through a challenge; in groups of four, we were challenged to re-create some pre-made creations using our classroom objects.  The challenge was, only two of the team mates were allowed to view the creation (they were called the 'lookers') and only two of the team mates were allowed to re-make the creation (they were called the 'builders'). 

More building and communication in action!

This challenge saw us using our communication and listening skills to reach success - which we totally did!

Dreamwork! Our creations look just like the original

There might not be an 'I' in Teamwork, but there is most definitely a 'WE'!

Autahi's Big Wharewaka Adventure

This week, the Autahi explorers headed to the waterfront for an epic morning of exploring with both our Wharewaka walking tour AND a tour of the new city library. With so much to see, hear and think about, we will be talking about this trip for weeks and drawing on it for further learning.

In the meantime, here are some highlights from our day, told through photos and the pictures the children drew to 'catch their memories' when we got back to school.

For some people, the bus was the best part of the trip.

The Wharewaka is home to several waka and they made a big impression.

It was exciting to have the chance to get up close and touch them. We learnt that one is decorated with albatross feathers, which symbolise peace.

Our memory drawings from this special day are on display in Autahi. Please come and take a look.

Zero Waste at Worser Bay School

Keep calm and recycle on!

In Autahi this week, we were bin-credibly lucky to have Lorraine, the Waste Educator / Kaiako Para Kore from Wellington City Council come in to teach us about rubbish, recycling, composting and more!

Here we explored the can-tastic world of recycling! We sorted recyclable materials into four piles - metals, cardboards, soft plastics and hard plastics. We were pretty shocked to hear that any materials that can't be recycled end up in the land fill!

Then, we were so fortunate to meet Lorraine's eco-mazing pet worms! Did you know that worms have FIVE hearts? Well Autahi sure did! We loved getting to peek at Lorraine's pet worms and their completely home-made soil. It really inspired us for our own composting here at Worser Bay School!

Have a chat with your child at home about what house-hold objects can be recycled or composted!