Learning about Respect

On the back wall of our classroom we have a space for our inquiry to grow. We started this inquiry because we wanted to learn more about respect and how we can show it to others.

We brainstormed ideas about what respect looks like and then thought about what respect might sound like. These are all examples of things we might hear around our class or in the playground.

Our next step was to create a super hero avatar, whose super power was the way the show respect. Everyone in our space has their own super hero that when they use some of these ideas they can move their avatar to that statement.
Here are some examples:

Research tells us that words help to create worlds. By making deliberate choices about the way we talk about respect we are hoping to make respectful language part of our everyday classroom environment. We are trying to notice each other when we use these statements and hopefully you will notice us using them as well.

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.