MORE HOME MAHI

Here are Abi and Rourke sharing what they have been doing at their whare (house).

MAHI FROM HOME

Here are some examples of mahi (work) that students in Puriri class have been doing while they are at home with whanau during this 'lockdown' period:

 Stop-motion animation by Niwa:

A mix of beats created by Niwa:

Niwa's DJ mix

CHAPTER BOOK THE BFG

WALT: love reading!
Today we had so much fun dressing up as characters from 'The BFG', the chapter book we have been reading and learning from this term.

We enjoyed watching the film version of 'The BFG' and sharing all the miharo (wonderful) kai (food) that we had made with our whanau.

Check out the amazing cake Gracie's mum brought in! We all agreed it tasted "scrumdiddlyumptious!". Gracie aka. The Queen enjoyed sharing it with her classmates :)

ROAD SAFETY

WALT: be safe around the road.

Today Constable Rob Drummond visited our class and spoke to us all about road safety. He asked how many of us travel to school by bus and gave us some tips on how to stay safe when getting on and off the bus. He reminded us all that drivers must be travelling at 20km p/h when passing a bus that is stopped and picking up children.
He also checked that we all knew the rules around being in booster seats until we are 7 years of age and/or a certain height.
Constable Drummond promised to visit us again later this year to talk about more interesting topics around our safety.

MATHS EYES

WALT: talk about maths ideas using maths vocabulary.

In Puriri class we often use images to generate maths discussions. We call this using our 'maths eyes'. By analysing different everyday images, we are easily able to see lots of maths ideas and concepts and speak about them as a whole class. This style of learning encourages the tuakana/teina (expert/novice) strategy where the students teach and learn from each other.
From this single image today, we were able to discuss:

• rows and columns
• multiplication strategies (skip counting in 2's, 5's and 8's)
• grouping items
• the properties of squares and rectangles
• place value (tens and ones)

WATER SAFETY

WALT: swim and play safely in and around water.

This term we have Avril from Watersafe Northland visiting us each week and teaching us all about water safety.
So far this term we have practiced safely floating in the water, raising our hand to signal for help, assisting somebody in need in the water using a pool noodle or a kick board, and how life-jackets work.

This type of learning is essential for all Kiwi kids as we live and play near and around the water on this north island of ours.

INQUIRY AT WETLANDS

WALT: inquire!

Today we began our inquiry into the wetlands. The wetlands lies across the road from our school
and is a wonderful asset for our students to further their learning in many areas; environment,
science, maths, literacy, art etc etc.

We will continue this inquiry throughout the year, following the students' wonderings and interests.

We began our session by thinking about and discussing what we already knew about the wetlands
(prior knowledge). Students use a think/pair/share strategy for this.

We then ventured across the road and immersed ourselves in the wetlands environment,
allowing the students to sit, walk around, discover and investigate the environment and take notes in their books for further discussion.

The following day Puriri class were placed into groups of 3 and given a 'question building chart' to come up with as many questions as they could about the topic of wetlands, using their notes and wonderings from the previous day for assistance.

From these charts, the students will choose their BEST question and that will form the basis of their initial inquiry.

SHARED NEWS

WALT: speak about a chosen topic in front of an audience.

Shared news is always something that the students love to do, everyone likes sharing things they have found at home or experiences they have had out of school time.
This term we have organised a schedule so the 3 students can share news on a Monday morning.

This week we began with Niwa, Tristam and Jay-Jay. They shared a variety of items, from cicada shells and a birds nest, to a torch for looking at cow's teeth, to a swan plant that had caterpillars on it.

The students are learning a variety of oral language skills, as well as how to be a respectful audience, listening and asking questions.

TAKING A DOT FOR A WALK

WALT: create a self-portrait.

As part of our term one theme of 'Knowing Us', Puriri class created self-portraits....with a twist!

First, we explored the layout and feel of our face by closing our eyes and tracing around our facial features (eyes, nose, mouth, chin, jawline, ears and forehead). Our teacher talked us through this process. Once we had done this, we took a black vivid marker and placed it in the centre of our A3 pieces of paper. 

We again closed our eyes and drew with the pen while using our other hand to feel upon our faces as before.

This process was a new experience for most of us, having never before created something with our eyes closed. Some of us struggled with the concept at first, some found it difficult to keep their eyes closed the entire time. Everybody took great delight in opening their eyes and having their creations revealed to them at the end of the session.

The resulting art pieces are a mixed bag of squiggly lines, some forms, various shapes and outlines. We finished the pieces off using oil pastel and hairspray to seal in the pastel effect.

The students showed great resilience; it was a rewarding lesson about ‘creating to create’, not for the finished product. It gave the students the freedom to explore their creativity with no ego and no judgement involved.

During this session the students displayed these achievement objectives:

• Communicating and interpreting - Share the ideas, feelings, and stories communicated by their own and others’ objects and images
• Developing practical knowledge - Explore a variety of materials and tools and discover elements and selected principles
• Developing ideas - Investigate and develop visual ideas in response to a variety of motivations, observation, and imagination.