Ha-pea-ness!

 

At last, the first of the Autahi peas are ready to eat!

We have been dialling up our Patience since we planted the seeds during Rising 5s at the end of August...

In mid-September we noticed that they were sprouting. Exciting!

We've tried to take care of them, with regular watering. They grew amazingly fast.

Now the pods are getting fat and ready to pick. We feel like cham-pea-on pea growers!

It's fun trying to discover where the peas are hiding on the plants. All the pods are ap-pea-ling, but we're trying to pick only the fat ones. That way, the others have time to grow a bit more before we eat them.

No need for a reci-pea: our peas never get as far as the kitchen. After all, what could be nicer than popping open a freshly-picked pod and gobbling up all the little, green peas inside? This is a new experience for some - but we're hoping that all our Autahi students will give peas a chance.

And our hardcore pea fans will hap-pea-ly munch through those sweet, pea-flavoured pods, too.

Peas are a wonderful, seasonal delicacy to share with children. We firmly believe that these are the experiences that are part of living our 'flourish' model for Positive Education, connecting us to positive accomplishment, engagement, emotions and health.

And watch out: there are beans on the way, too!

  Positive Heath: Sharks and Starfish

In Autahi, we often talk about how different emotions affect our brains. When we get angry, upset or a bit too excited, some mindful breathing helps us move from our 'feeling brains' back into our 'thinking brains'.

Watch the video Just Breathe for more on how this works.



Here are a couple of the breathing techniques we use in Autahi.

Shark Fin Breaths 

You don't need gills to breath like a shark! Sit or stand comfortably. Hold your hand up, side on, with your thumb resting against your forehead (this is your 'shark fin'). Then, move your hand slowly down your face, in front of your nose, to your chin. Gently breathe out as you do so. Now, as you slowly breathe in, gradually slide your hand up again. Repeat five times.

Starfish Breathing 

Sit or stand comfortably. Make a starfish with one out-stretched hand. Slowly run the index finger of the other hand from your wrist to the tip of your thumb. Breathe in as you do so. Then let your finger run down the other side to the base of your thumb. Breathe out as you do this. Now repeat with each finger in turn, taking your time, focussing on your breath.

Give them a try and let us know what you think. If you have any other mindfulness techniques that work for you, we'd love to hear about them, too.

Positive Accomplishment and Health!

When we talk about Positive Education and Flourishing we are talking about scientifically proven strategies for "feeling good and doing good".  The flourish model is a framework we look at to help balance what we do.  These last few weeks we have been engaged in many experiences that have helped us to strive towards goals and have also been grounded in fitness and health. We know that these are just small parts of the whole picture of not only our wellbeing but also our academic successes. 

Cross Country and Swimming have been in the spotlight in the last few weeks as some focus on Positive Health and Positive Accomplishment. We know to be fully flourishing we strive to have some of each domain represented on a regular basis.

Positive Accomplishment: The development of individual potential through striving for and achieving meaningful outcomes--involves the capacity to work towards goals despite setbacks.

Positive Health: Optimal and sustainable physical and psychological health.

Leading up to our x-country we have been practising our running every day, choosing our own challenges of laps around the school. We have been working on trying to push ourselves while also pacing ourselves. We also have been needing to practise perseverance because at times we wanted to give up. On the day we all gave it a go, achieved some of our goals and had fun!

In swimming each week we are not only practising healthy habits, but also we are working towards and achieving small goals.  

For some of us, it is getting comfortable in the water, while others we are working on swimming underwater, bubble breathing, streamline arms and much more! 

ASB sports centre trip

On Monday the 26th of November we took a trip out to the ASB sports centre for a day of trying new sports and learning new ways to play. We had to use many different character strengths over the day. Some used bravery when trying new things like using the big sticks in Floorball to perseverance as we had 4 different activities through the day and found it harder towards the end as our energy started to dip. We have been learning about different ways to play in our inquiry and it was a great opportunity for us to work with some experts to help us learn new skills we can apply in our own games. 

A group of Autahi runners practising their athletic skills

In Futsal we learned how to pass and stop the ball with our feet

Some people made Floorball look easy

We practised passing skills using the sticks in Floorball

Look at us chase the ball. Good thing we practised

We had to dribble the ball around the cones. It was a bit tricky but we stuck with it and got there in the end

Afterwards we started some artwork to help show some of the things we learned at the ASB centre. This is one way of expressing our learning so that others can tell what we got up to. We will use this to inspire us in our writing to use this rich experience as a basis for our ideas.

This has had a really positive effect on how we think about play and being active with our friends. Hopefully the weather clears up so we can carry on this learning outside in the sun.

Wellbeing

Throughout the day we take opportunities to focus on different elements of our flourish model (Positive Health, Purpose, Relationships, Accomplishment, Emotions, Engagement through unpacking and learning about strengths and character strengths) Here are some examples of ways we have been working on our wellbeing recently.

We took the opportunity to practise the strengths of Gratitude and Appreciation of Excellence and Beauty by taking advantage of beautiful weather and heading outside to do some of our reading under a tree.  We were able to hear the bird sounds around us, enjoy the view behind us and have an opportunity to enjoy some reading in nature.  

We also enjoyed some Star Wars Yoga on a wet day with some of our Tuakana buddies.  We were practising positive health and mindfulness by connecting with our breathing. We were also working on our relationships by having fun and shared experiences with our Tuakana buddies.  

Athletics Day

Last week we had our annual Athletics Day down at the beach. We had been doing lots of practise of all the different events over the last few weeks and our bodies were ready for action.

After a nice walk down to the beach we went to our first events: Vortex and Quiots. Both of these were throwing events and we had lots of fun.
See if you can spot us pointing to where we want to throw?

Next up was long jump. If someone had told you that children in Autahi had developed the power of flight you might not have believed them. But these photos prove that there are some hidden superpowers in our class.

Finally we made our way to the sprints. We ran forwards and we ran backwards. Everyone had a go and showed a great growth mindset and can-do attitude.

We worked really hard but most importantly we had lots of fun. Fun is the most important thing when getting some exercise and helps us keep a positive attitude.

When we returned to school we were so excited by all the fun we had and really proud of our achievements. We turned our experiences into some amazing stories. Rich experiences like this lend themselves to writing and inspire us to create interesting stories for our readers. We also created some art of ourselves competing in our favourite events.
Check out some of our pieces we have finished so far.