Taking Action!

We have chosen an area of the school to be the Kaitiaki of and we are taking action to make sure they are ready for play!

We are Kaitiaki of the Gardens. We go around and check that there is no rubbish in the gardens and that they are watered.

We are Kaitiaki of the drains. We make sure that the covers are on the drains and there is no rubbish inside or around them.

We are Kaitiaki of the sandpit. We make sure that the sandpit toys are in the sandpit and that it is clean and ready to play in.

When we were outside, we noticed some problems....

We are going to have to think creatively about how to solve them.

Imagine

We are so lucky in Autahi to have some amazing musicians to help us learn new songs. One of the songs we have been learning is Imagine by John Lennon.

This song has inspired us to imagine our own world where the Kaitiaki superheroes in Autahi have been working hard and have achieved all their goals. Here are some visualisations we did in teams that show what we imagined the world might look like. Each group were practising their team work skills by listening carefully to each others ideas before adding anything on. Patience was the key as we took turns listening and adding in our ideas to build together as a team.

 Here we have the Kaitiaki of the forests imagining a world where the trees are looked after and the animals all can make their homes in peace.










Then we have the Kaitiaki of the environment. They have been imagining big picture things like cities, planets and even the whole universe. We can see everything co-existing in harmony from greenhouses to galaxies.

 Next we have the Kaitiaki of the pets. They have been imagining what the world will look like when every pet has a good home with people who care for them.

 The underwater Kaitiaki have been imagining how life in the ocean will be when there is no rubbish spoiling their homes. Blue water where fish, sharks and crabs can make their homes.

Finally the Kaitiaki of exotic animals and insects have been imagining a world where all animals great and small can live peacefully. Monkeys and butterflies and unicorns oh my!











Here is some of the writing we have been doing alongside this to inspire our imaginations.

Inquiry update: Time to take action!

Taking action

We have come a long way on our journey to being kaitiaki of our local environments. Our capes are ready to go and we have done some great thinking about our own strengths. But now we have to take some action to make our environment a better place by taking some action. We had a good walk around in our school and took notice of all the things that we could do to help. This tied into our literacy for the week where we put our ideas in writing.

I can make more plants for hedgehogs.

I can make a bird house so the cats can't get the birds.

I can recycle so animals don't die and so the plastic doesn't go in the sea.

I can reuse rubbish to make a hut.

One of the key things we noticed was that there was a lot of rubbish around the grounds that animals might mistake for food. One of the actions we decided to take was to spend some time each day looking after the grounds by picking up some of the rubbish and taking photos to show other people what happens when we don't put it in the right place. Here is what we found in just one day!

We have many great ideas and are showing our creativity by building some models of what things might look like. Here is a rat trap designed by some of the awesome Autahi thinkers:

Creating new things and taking action is all part of the inquiry process. We are reflecting on all the things we have learned so far and challenging ourselves to try and make things better than they already are. Through experimenting and building we are using our problem solving skills as well as working together as a team.  

Bush Builders

Bush Builders 

Last week we were visited by Charles from the Wellington Zoo who came to help us find out what kind of things might be living in our school gardens. 

We used a variety of equipment to help us look. Some people had magnifying glasses while others had special containers that we could put things safely inside of while we had a closer look.

We were scientists as we discovered new creatures and used some of the great books that Charles had shared with us to identify what we had found. Working together as a team we looked at the number of legs and shape of the body to work out what we had found.

The great thing about science is that it is right on our doorstep. Worser Bay School is full of gardens with plants growing, insects hiding under rocks and leaves and beautiful birds singing in the trees. When we put on our scientist hats we use our observational skills to look closer at what we may not notice at a surface level. The more we know about our environment will help us to figure out what we can do to help make it a better place.

We are Powerful: An update on our Kaitiaki Inquiry

As you would have read in our last post, we have been thinking about what we are kaitiaki of and we have created crests to represent these ideas.  We also have been exploring how this is like us being Super Heroes of that domain.  We have finished our Super Hero artwork in which we have posed in powerful poses, added crests to represent our initial letters, 1 to represent what we look after and have added 3 of what we consider to be our top character strengths.  Have a look at how powerful we look!

Kaitiakitanga

Kaitiakitanga

Traditionally, Māori believe there is a deep kinship between humans and the natural world. This connection is expressed through kaitiakitanga – a way of managing the environment.

This term as part of our inquiry about the environment we have been looking at becoming superheroes of our environment. 

We had Matt visit from the SPCA to tell us about how they are Kaitiaki or guardians of animals and how we can be guardians of animals too. We have also spent time with the bush builders who showed us how to care for our local environment.

We created super hero badges that show what we are Kaitiaki of: 

Some chose animals:

Others chose the environment:

Then we posed as superheroes to complete our transformation into Kaitiaki:

But it wouldn't be complete without our super hero/Kaitiaki capes. We have started screen printing and will be decorating them later this week. 

Our next step is to think about what we can do as Kaitiaki in our local environment. We can't wait to see where we go next. 

Learning through Play--what we've been up to!

Throughout the day in Autahi there are many learning through play times, also known as Discovery time.  During this time children can choose what they'd like to do.  They choose from a variety of table top provocations that are related to our literacy, maths and inquiry learning or they can choose to play with the kinetic sand, the building materials, making materials, outside fitness and PE materials and lots more.  During this time I often see children incorporating what we are learning together through their play.  Here are some examples of what children are currently choosing to do and some of the learning links.

Socio-Dramatic Play: Vets

Since the Vets area has been introduced we have had vets and patients non-stop.  Children are showing their natural Kaitiaki as they carefully mend a kiwi's broken beak, perform surgery on a dog with a sore leg and apply bandages galore to all of the teddies we have.  This is a further exploration of our inquiry into looking after our environment.  Many of us have pets at home and this role-play allows us to show care for animals.  

These guys are sitting in the waiting room waiting their turn with their sick pets, while the vets work on other animals.  

The learning links:

• Social Science: Understand that people have different roles and responsibilities as part of their participation in groups.

• Health and PE: Identity, sensitivity, and respect • Demonstrate respect through sharing and co-operation in groups.
• Key Competencies: Relating to others.  Sharing, taking turns, actively listen, recognise different points of view, negotiate, and share ideas.
• Writing: Recognise how to shape texts for a purpose and an audience (they begin to understand that a chart for a doctor is very different writing than a letter to a friend or a story).

 The Nurse is filling out the chart, deciding what is wrong with the animal and choosing what will best improve its health.  Not only are the children using their imagination, recognising roles within the community, showing care and Kaitiaki, but also they are exploring literacy through symbols, pictures and writing.

Beading

We have been creating our own string of beads with our names and colours and beads we like.  We are creating a new Autahi 2018 Mobile and each of us will put our string of beads on to show that we are part of the class.  

 Learning Links:

Reading and spelling our own names

Fine motor development which is crucial for writing

Managing ourselves to stay focussed on a learning task and concentrate to complete (This competency is associated with self-motivation, a “can-do” attitude, and with students seeing themselves as capable learners.)

Kinetic Sand

The kids love to play with the kinetic sand.  They create with it and watch as it changes form from a solid shape to individual pieces of sand.  These guys were using bulldozers and trucks and animals and plants.  They sorted and organised the animals into groups and they used bulldozers and tools to build and shape their sand.

Learning Links:

Visual arts: • Explore a variety of materials and tools and discover elements and selected principles.

Science. The living world: • Recognise that there are lots of different living things in the world and that they can be grouped in different ways.

Science. Properties and changes of matter: • Observe, describe, and compare physical and chemical properties of common materials 

Key competencies: Relating to others is about interacting effectively with a diverse range of people in a variety of contexts. This competency includes the ability to listen actively, recognise different points of view, negotiate, and share ideas.

Not to mention the oral language and creative thinking that is being developed!

Maths and Number Exploration

This is one of the provocations out in the room.  We have been doing lots of number talks during guided maths time where we explain how we can see different numbers.  This is an independent game to consolidate that knowledge.  They work together to match the numeral, tens frame and finger patterns. 

                   

These guys chose the large playing cards off the maths shelf and made up their own game.  They were finding cards that matched.  They were sorting by suit and by number as well.  This was fantastic consolidation of learning we are doing together. 

This is only a snapshot of the types of things that happen in a day in Autahi.  You can see that the NZ curriculum is being explored and learned in many different ways and contexts.  Learning through play and providing choice allows the children to have fun, think creatively and be agents in their learning!