Today we had a class decision regarding the topic "are learning and behaviour the same?".
Some of us argued that we need the right attitude in order to be able to learn and that traits such as determination, resilience, motivation and drive for learning make it more possible for us to learn and achieve more.
However, other mentioned that learning is not the same as behaviour, because behaviour involves controlling our emotions but learning involves developing knowledge and skills.
We decided to make up a profile of what we consider an active learner to be. We came up with the following:
Determined to try their best
Take risks
Challenge themselves
Share their ideas with others
actively listen to others
Are not afraid to ask for help
Think critically about what they are learning
Take responsibility for their learning
Take risks and are not afraid to fail
Take opportunities that you are given e.g. to demonstrate your strategy with the class.
Set and follow learning goals.
We worked on becoming active learners in our writing lesson, where we worked really hard to meet our writing goals.
Then we focussed on our behaviour in our class soccer match. We made sure that we were respectful and that we acted as team players.
This morning a Duffy role model, Niva Retimanu, came and visited Glenbrae School. Niva is an award winning journalist and radio presenter, so reading is a big part of her job! Niva read us a story called Kiss Kiss, Yuck Yuck by Kyle Mewburn. Although it was aimed at younger kids, Niva read with great expression and she was very entertaining!
After the story, Niva presented a couple of Duffy books to each class. We love getting Duffy books and we look forward to reading them in the holidays!
After the assembly, we created a description of our role models and we thought of the traits that we really value in a person. We then discussed the traits that we possess and the ways that we can embody them.
One of the main reasons that our camp has been such a success is down to the organisation, charisma and energy of our facilitators from Adventure for Good. Not only did they prepare our main meals, but they taught us lessons in bush survival and kayaking, facilitated a range of games and activities and joined us as we visited a range of historical sites.
During our evenings at camp, the Adventure for Good guides planned and facilitated a range of games and activities for us to take part in. On our first night, we were given maps of the campground and asked to complete an orienteering activity. The catch; it was pitch black (we relied on our torches) and all of our group members were tied together. This was so much fun and we all had a great laugh! As we had not seen the campground in the light before we all got very lost which we found incredibly funny - what a way to inspire teamwork and group bonding.
On the nights that half of our party were sleeping in the bush, the other half got to participate in a range of activities. On our night, Chris set up a quiz for us to participate in which involved questions around New Zealand history and some of the things that we had learnt about from visiting the various historical sites. This was a perfect way for our Tamariki to use their new knowledge and they had a lot of fun. I was very proud of Amelia, Davarni, Dekorah and Telesia's group who won this
competition!
The winning team learning to play Trivial Pursuit
On our final night Sarah and Michael facilitated two activities. In the first activity the groups had to create a skit that illustrated something that they had learnt on the camp. Two of the groups shared information about the History of New Zealand, while the other two illustrated elements of bush survival. Check out my group rehearsing their skit below (Telesia is narrating):
The next activity (The Mostest) required the group to put forward different individuals to compete in a range of mini competitions. These included things like the person who could hold the plank for the longest, eat a grapefruit the fastest and sing the best(est). This was so funny and had the whole group erupting in laughter at several points of the evening!
Throughout the week Sarah and Michael had been very supportive of our learners during our excursions. Sarah was very happy to support our mini swimming lesson, to drive my group to each of our activities while I ran mini maths lessons (you can't go anywhere without a bit of maths) and to make extra stops/ to slightly change our schedule when the weather did not allow us to stay outside. The learners really looked up to them and they were greatly encouraging.
The facilities at Orongo Bay Holiday Park were also great for our learners. They especially enjoyed the board games, playground, trampoline, tire and rope swings. Even Miss Stone had a go on these!
Then there was the support and involvement of the other kaiako who we met along the way. Whaea Roy and Whaea Monica greeted us at the Treaty Grounds and shared many stories with us on our two visits. Dan from Bay Beach Hire was really encouraging and supportive during our kayaking session and Luke and Rachael from Barefoot Sailing Adventures were very welcoming and knowledgeable on the SV Kopiko - they all ensured that we were having a great time! We also learned a great deal from our guides at the Stone Store, Kemp House and from Kepa at Rewa's Village.
We learnt that it is polite to eat the scone as two separate halves
Today we compared the differences in cultural protocols between the Māori and British during the 19th century. We looked at tikanga last week and discussed these before we made our Takakau, so we discussed English cooking and protocol this week before we made scones.
Trent illustrating correct napkin use
This morning we baked the scones in the oven and learnt about the English upper class and high teas. We discussed etiquette and how many rules the British had around having afternoon tea - even regarding which direction to stir the tea! We then practiced these as we sat to enjoy our scones.
Keeping our napkins on our laps we take small bites!
Keeping elbows off the table!
This was very timely as we were off to watch a play soon after - another English tradition that was around in the 1800s (and before).
In today's PB4L/fitness lesson, we participated in a number of team building activities. We were learning to work well with all of our peers by communicating effectively.
We played a few rounds of hand soccer as a warm up, before we played a game called the magic cane. In this game we needed to lift up a wooden stick using only our index fingers. We found this super easy and we were all successful in our first attempt!
We then played a game like Chinese whispers, only we had to describe a picture and the person at the end of the chain had to draw what we described. We realised that we needed to think carefully about how we would describe the picture and that we needed to focus on what we were told.
Finally we played a shape game. Each member of our team had to hold on to a piece of string and we had to create the shape that Miss Stone named. We started off with easy shapes like circles and squares, before we moved on to trickier shapes like a rhombus, octagon and a pentagon.
This morning the year six students from Room 8 have been demonstrating our school value 'respect for others'. Aj, Tumanako and Mathew helped out in Room 9. They supported the year four students to use their devices for their learning and to complete their work.
Alison, Francesca and Anita helped in Room 1, but they were creating cultural costumes for the Tongan group. This was a wonderful way to support the school and Mrs Raj was very grateful for their hard work.
Today was the first day of term 2 and room 8 have started our strong! We started the day with an immersion assembly where we found out that our inquiry for the start of term will be on pets. We then headed to room 11 for some team building activities.
When we got there we played a shape identification game as a warm up and split up into two groups.
The groups then played the human knot game, where the students joined hands and had to untangle themselves and the hoop game, where they had to pass a hoop around the circle while joining hands.
We then played a game of hand soccer, where we had to use one hand to score a goal against an opposition. After playing 1 vs 1 we moved on to 2 vs 2 and finally games of 3 vs 3.
We then went to class and took part in an encouragement circle, where we all had to write encouraging words to one another. We then had to think of something about ourselves that we could write to encourage us.
Today in PB4L, room 8 had a class discussion about our class routines and roles and whether we wanted to change anything. We then had a discussion about the importance of using kind. Sometimes we can joke about something, or say something without thinking about it which can lead to us hurting other peoples feelings.
To illustrate this, we squeezed toothpaste out of a tube and onto a piece of card. We each took a turn and found it pretty simple to squeeze the toothpaste out - it was also quite fun!
However, when Miss Stone asked us to put it back we really struggled. Each group tried different weird and wonderful strategies, but it was impossible to get all of the toothpaste back in the tube. This illustrated the fact that it is easy to say something to someone, but very difficult to take our words back. This message prompted some great discussion about what we can and cannot take back.
This afternoon room 8 had their official treaty signing ceremony. We all sat in a circle and reviewed the treaty that we had previously written. We had to make sure that we still agreed with everything and understood what it meant. We also talked about what we could do when people broke our contract.
Once we all had discussed our treaty, we began to sign it. As not everyone has an official signature, we decided to sign using our fingerprints. So we made a tree-ty with our finger prints, which also fits in with our theme of sustainability this year.
