What at amazing trip!

Recently Ruth and her family went on an amazing trip to Europe. Ruth and Ruth’s mum were kind enough to share some photos and stories of their adventures with the class. The learners in Room 18 were captivated with the experience, and some are already planning an overseas trip!

We absolutely love when learners are able to make these connections with whānau. If you have askill or something interesting to share with us I’dreally love to hear from you. Please email me on adent@hameast.school.nz. 

Welcome back to term Three!

Welcome back!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the parents and whānau of learners in Room 18 for their support while I was away last term. It has been lovely to see so many smiling faces this term and see how keen everyone is to be back at school.

We have such an exciting term planned, with our particular focus being the Kete Aronui art exhibition in week 6. The learners have been working hard on completing their artworks.

We have also started making out collaborative kohanga, and it is progressing nicely. It's very exciting to see learners sharing their knowledge and expertise with each other as they weave the next together.

Below are some photos of learners in room 18 practising their communication skills. They had to give their partner instructions to build an identical block tower. Not as easy as it sounds! This activity highlighted how important it is to be specific with details when you're giving instructions. 

Happiness is... poetry

Last week Room 18 learners wrote their own beautiful piece of poetry. First they brainstormed different emotions and then voted as a class which emotion they would write about. They chose happiness.

The next day learners then discussed some different ideas about what happiness tastes, smells, looks, sounds and feels like. There were some fantastically creative and imaginative ideas that emerged.

Below is each brainstorm the learners did and the finished poem. You may have seen this come home in their poem book. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it. 

Happiness is golden yellow like bright sunshine.

It tastes like cold sparkling lemonade.

It smells of homemade strawberry ice cream.

It looks like soft waves breaking on the sand.

It sounds like children laughing with each other.

It feels like lying in a meadow watching clouds in the sky.

Art in progress

The focus for the last few weeks during Room 18's art time has been Māori and Pasifika patterns. The learners have explored the meaning behind these patterns and how they are used in different ways.

Below is a sample of the progress learners are making with patterns that will hopefully be turned into fabric art. If there are any willing parents who would like to join us in class and share your knowledge and expertise about either Māori or Pasifika art and crafts I would love for you to get in touch.

Social action and social responsibility

As a result of their research into the past and present use of the Waikato River the learners in Room 18 raised concerns about the water quality of the river.

Lots of discussion and investigation took place as the learners tried to find ways that they could look after the river.

They decided that the best way to get their message out was to make posters and put them up in their neighbourhoods.

The followed a technological brief to design, mock up and then produce their final poster. Below are the results.

I hope everyone has a safe and restful holidays.

Ange.

How much sugar in that drink?

This week Room 18 was lucky enough to have a visit with Zane from Project Energize. Zane did a fascinating presentation about exactly how much sugar there is in many popular drinks. The learners were astounded to see that there are huge amounts of sugar in fruit drinks and energy drinks.

Kete Aronui

Kete Aronui:  (noun) basket of knowledge of aroha, peace and the arts and crafts which benefit the Earth and all living things - one of the three baskets of knowledge. This basket relates to knowledge acquired through careful observation of the environment. It is also the basket of ritual, of literature, philosophy and is sometimes regarded as the basket of the humanities.

This year our Art Exhibition is entitled "Kete Aronui". The focus for our art in the upcoming term will be Māori and Pasifika patterns and symbols. As a class we will be learning about the meanings and significance of these symbols and incorporating them into our art.

As always, you, as whānau of the learners, are one of our greatest resources. I would love for anyone who would like to come along and share their knowledge to get in touch.

In Room 18 we have begun this journey by exploring the koru and pikorua symbols.

Source: Pinterest, original source unidentified.

Mindfullness

One of our daily activities in Room 18 is to practice mindfulness. We do this every day after lunch and I find it helps learners to get back into a learning frame of mind for our afternoon session. On Mondays to Thursdays we use an app called "Smiling Mind" (you may want to have a listen yourself to see what we're doing). This app encourages learners to think about emotions, kindness, breathing and focused their attention.

Learners in room 18 sit or lie in a position that helps them to relax and focus

On Fridays our mindfulness is slightly different and we sketch to focus our attention. Music for mindfulness is played and learners are encouraged to focus deeply on their subject. This week it was each other. The results were amazing and learners loved the opportunity to check out each others sketches and give positive feedback.

He piko, he Taniwha

If you've made in it to Room 18 is the last wee while you may have noticed the learners mural of their river journey and the Taniwha. We began by sketching Taniwha, using various books and pictures as inspiration. From the sketches we chose an area or aspect of our sketch to focus on and picked out the key details. These key details were then drawn in sharpie and we painted the Taniwha.

This mural represents both the journey of the Waikato River and also our learning journey through the year. Sometimes the journey is straight and fast, sometimes it is winding and twisted. Our journeys come together in our class as we travel together.

How do we look after our river?

As part of our inquiry into the Waikato River and it's history we have been exploring the quality of the water in the Waikato River and how this has changed over time and been effected by human activity in the area. The leaners have been investigating how we can better take care of the river. On Friday we discovered how what we put into the ground, or onto it, near water ways can collect in the soil and then make its way into the river. The next step in this investigation is to look at how we can educate our peers about keeping the water healthy and what we can do as a community. Watch this space to find out what learners have come up with! In the meantime, here is an experiment we did with an aquifer the illustrates how pollution gets into the water. If you look closely you can see the Polluted (red) water at the bottom of the rocks.

The Waikato River

Following our riverwalk last week the learners have been engaged in learning more about the history of the river and how human activity has impacted on the river. In the coming weeks we will be investigating this further and finding out how we can make a difference to the quality of the water in our environment. Room 18 also explored making their own river that mirrored their learning journey at Hamilton East. Alongside the river we also made tuna (eels) to swim along the river.

The learners making their tuna.

Also, if you haven't already, please sign up to Seesaw (a notice was sent home with the QR code), as the learners in Room 18 are so keen to share their learning with you.