Inquiry Learning Parent Workshop

On 4th April, we held a parent workshop on Inquiry Learning.

Purpose of workshops:

• to show that Inquiry is authentic and is about deep thinking

• to unpack the Inquiry process

• to encourage conversations about learning to continue at home.

Parent Maths Workshop

Message from Jude: 

In Week 9, Term 3, we had the Parent Workshop on Maths Learning. As I said, we are very proud of our Maths academic results. In 2017 a colossal 86% of our children were at, exceeding or well exceeding curriculum expectations in Maths for their year level. And we are tough on our judgments, as the reviewers from the Education Review Office noted in their feedback to us! But that doesn't mean we rest easy. We have never known so much about how students learn - thank you to the inventors of MRI scanning technology.

All of our teachers are undertaking Maths professional development through Stanford University - focussed on the latest research and thinking in Maths education as to where and how you get the biggest shifts in achievement. The Board recognises the importance of ongoing teacher development and, as a consequence, Nicola was awarded a study grant this year, yes - you guessed it - focussed on Maths. Nicola and Ximena have also been selected to present at the largest national educators' conference ULearn these upcoming holidays, which we are really proud of. (And their session is booked out!)

So we were very excited to have the opportunity to share our ongoing learning and thinking with many of you last week. We started with a little activity - asking parents to simply answer this question:

BEFORE: What did Maths mean to you at school? (3 words)

Then at the end of the interactive workshops we asked this question:

AFTER: What does Maths learning look like for kids at WBS? (3 words)

Please find the first and second Word Cloud results below:



This was really great and informative feedback for us, and I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up on a screen in Auckland at ULearn sometime soon as part of a presentation!

If you couldn't make it, you may find this Jo Boaler Ted Talk interesting. Or What our Children Think.

 

Positive Health

Positive Health

In Positive Education, positive health is helping children to create sustainable habits for physical and psychological health.  Here are some of the ways we have been learning about and practising positive health in Autahi.

In the last few weeks we have been really lucky to have a few more workshops providing us with some information for ways we can work our powerful bodies! We learned about muscles from Daniela and she ran a little bootcamp with us.  It was a lot of work, but was lots of fun and we all felt a bit stronger after!

We learned some exercises to work our core, our arms and our legs.  When we keep our core strong, we also keep our back strong!

These were really hard and lots of us had never even tried them before, but we kept an open mind and gave it a go!

We tried burpees, crawls and squats!

After doing all of our exercise we had to cool down and stretch because we wanted to keep our muscles healthy.

Participating in exercise has so many benefits and we have been making sure to spend time each day and throughout the day doing exercise, not only to stay fit, but also to keep our mind healthy and happy!

Here is some of what we do throughout the day:

toe touches, push-ups, arm circles, buddy sit ups and hip circles.

During play-time and throughout the day we can also go outside and play games with PE equipment--these guys were playing with this Rugby ball!

Another great workshop we had was learning about Muay Thai Kickboxing.  Tori brought in her first fight gear and she taught us a bit about kickboxing . We learned all the rules to make sure we kept each other safe and got to have a turn putting on the uniform and trying out the bag.  We learned that you always give thanks to your opponent when you start and finish a match, you only hit in the ring and you never hit when your opponent is down! We had so much fun and man were we tired after!

What kinds of things do you do at home for your health?

Parent Wellbeing Worksop

Wellbeing Workshop.

Thanks so much to all the parents who came to the Wellbeing Workshop and participated with such enthusiasm and energy. What a buzz there was in the room with all the character strength discussions, the breathing exercises to enhance positive emotions, looking at Kaizen steps to break down the goals for a positive purpose, recognising the benefits of positive relationships when solving maths problems, being positively engaged by working collaboratively to construct a house, understanding the schooldocs, recognising the advantages of exercise and meditation for positive health and accepting the challenges involved in positive accomplishment when using chop sticks to move around a range of strangely shaped objects. Plus all the motivational speakers and discussions.

It sure took a while to unwind from the excitement and get off to sleep that night, but so positive to be realising the message is reaching the children from both home and school.

Thanks for coming! Shona

Learning through Action and Play with our parents!

We had our learning through action morning this morning. It was so great to see so many parents come and learn and play alongside their children. This was our learning scavenger hunt that worked as a guide through our morning. Children chose what they wanted to do with their parents.

There were lots of letters written to the witch

Children were choosing books they wanted to read.

Scientists were looking closely, observing what they were seeing and drawing in their visual diaries.

 Many were practising typing the computer password on the keyboard so that they can turn the computers on themselves!

We had measuring and pouring at the water table.  This is looking at capacity.  One container is much wider than the other, while one is longer and thinner.  Which one holds more liquid I wonder?

Children went outside and made up games of catch and tag.

 There was lots of maths thinking happening.  This is our calendar wall where we keep track of the weather, the days of the week, the month, and how many days we've been at school.

The beetle game is popular.  There's lots of sorting, categorising,  and colour recognising going on here. 

There was patterning here, blue, black, blue, black.  We counted that there were 10 penguins altogether.  5 blue and 5 black.  So we figured out 5 + 5 =10!

Here there were ice cream cones being made with playdough and kinetic sand was burrying treasure.  

 Some of us were finding words we know and reading poems.

 Here we have lots of marbles being transported with long bits of the marble run.

 There were aliens being made and trees with koalas.

There was so much fun and learning going on and parents had a great time too! Thanks again!

Here is the scavenger hunt sheet for those that couldn't make it.  You could talk with your kids about what they did for some of them!

Name:                                                Go in any order and choose which things you’d like to do. Highlight what you’ve done

Show the treaty and explain what it says	Choose a book and a comfy place and read a story	Go outside and make a potion or build something with the sand	Create something at the making table
Show me the calendar wall.  What do we do here? Let’s sing the days of the week song.	Let’s do some yoga. Teach me some of the poses. Which one is your favourite?	Show me the poem of the week.  Let’s read it together.  Then we can practise typing the password in for the computer.	Let’s play with the playdough or kinetic sand.  How does it feel? We can squish it, build something or just have fun with it!
Let’s choose something off the maths shelf to explore.  We might make a pattern, build a tower and count, or more!	Let’s look closely and do some careful observational drawing of what we can see!	Let’s choose something off the ABC shelf to practise. We can string our letters or make words, use playdough, stamps matching shells or more!	Let’s build something at the construction area. What can we build?
My Choice for something that’s not on here that I want to show you or do with you.	Let’s write a letter to the witch. You’ll have to help me write it! But I can help with the idea, a picture and what I want to say!	Let’s go outside and make up a game with some materials! I’ll show you where we are allowed to play.	My Choice for something that’s not on here that I want to show you or do with you.