Cool being a Duffy School

Hauraki Likes to READ
After receiving the first of our Duffy Books for 2018 at a special assembly last week, we had time to hang out on our school field and read our books!

It was the beautifully sunny day before we all went off for Easter break,
so we lucked in with an Easter Egg as well.

We have many gorgeous Pohutakawa Trees lining one side of our playing
field and a fitness trail that circles the North side of the field. What better place to hang out and read.



After reading our books for 30 mins, we listened to the class novel we are reading - Sunken Forest by Des Hunt. We are lucky enough to have Des Hunt visit us next term to talking to us and have a writing workshop with us.

If you haven't read a Des Hunt book make sure you check out his website. He has some superior reads. Always based in New Zealand with environmental messages and LOTS of action. The main characters are always around 11-13 years old.

https://www.deshunt.com/

Animal Classification

Last Thursday and Friday we worked on investigating words that are part of the Scientific Classification of animals. Words like Vertebrates, Invertebrates, Mammals, Birds, Fish, Amphibians, Reptiles, Crustaceans, Arachnids and Insects. This was part of our Inquiry this year which is Curiosity.



We were put into groups and given one chromebook per group. Then we were given four minutes to find information about one of the words, to write onto a large piece of paper. When four minutes were up we shifted to the next piece of paper and word in a bus stop activity. Each time we needed to find new information if we could, to add to the page. We shifted nine times so we looked at all ten words!  There were two rotations of these groups happening in our syndicate at the same time and we found out heaps of information.

The following day we were matched up with the other group that started at the word we started with and told we had to choose the most important pieces of information that described this animal group and present it to an audience in some way. We had about 20-25 minutes over 2 days to come up with something fun. Here are our video clips of what we presented.

Sunken Forest by Des Hunt

Hauraki is reading Sunken Forest as a class novel and LOVING IT. Nothing better than giant eels and spooky trees!
We are only up to Chapter 9 but really engrossed in the story and looking forward to finding out what happens. Yesterday we created personal responses in groups of three, after just 3 chapters so we could discuss how we felt about the story. We will probably do this at the end of the book to see how our thinking has changed.



We looked at these six categories.....

 

Check out some of the groups work.....

Lavinia, Abby, Shabeera                  Faith, Ayva, Manisha                 Bruno, Toby Alex    
      
      Des Hunt is a New Zealand Author who uses adventure and suspense in his books a lot. they are always based in New Zealand with Kiwi kids and real environmental and social issues. 

We have a task board of activities that we will complete. As each item is finished we will attached it to a slide on our slideshows and blog them when we have finished.


If you wanted to check out the Synopsis of the book on Des Hunts Website the link is here.

Swimming

In this HOT HOT HOT weather we are thankful our school has a pool and a caretaker that keeps it super clean. Each week we have two lessons in our school pool and two opportunities to swim at lunchtime. Then 2 days a week for the first 5 weeks of term we also visit the local council pool for lessons in Water Safety as well as basic swimming skills.
We put together a movie of our first few times in the pools, but it is too large for our blog! :( Sad.
However here are some pictures of the awesome action happening.

 

 

 




Most of Hauraki love swimming and they nearly always bring their togs. They are really improving their diving  underwater swimming and general confidence in the water. Nearly all the class can swim 100m, which is 4 lengths of the Cameron Pool, nonstop. The others are well on the way and their skills have improved heaps in the last 4 weeks. Plus it is a heap of fun!!  

Check out these videos as well.




Cameron Pool is in the Mt Roskill area of Auckland and is run by the council through the YMCA Organisation.

Their Website is .......
https://www.ymcaauckland.org.nz/find-your-local/cameron-pool-leisure-centre/

Te Tiriti o Waitangi

Toby's Work 

In the month of February our Syndicate did lots of learning around The Treaty of Waitangi.
We read the books The Treehouse Treaty by .....
This is the House That Jack Built by Gavin Bishop and The Treaty House by .......

We also covered Te Tiriti o Waitangi by      from the School Journals, in group work and had questions to answer afterwards. Finally we competed in two Kahoots about The Treaty to see what we remembered. they were great fun and we did extremely well.
Zoe and Toby completed some great work and haven't yet got their own blog. Check out what they learnt.

Zoe's Work 

Check Out US!!

At Waikowhai, our Friday Whole School Assemblies are run by the kids. Each week a different class is rostered on to organise and present the assembly. Yes, Hauraki got Week One!! It's always a challenge at the very beginning of the year to get work finished to present but this class were keen and on to it!! 6 students organised the slideshow we needed of the programme and everyone worked hard to complete their work and practise their parts.
One of the items we presented was a slideshow that included a slide from each student talking about themselves and their 'favourites'. We wanted to get this ready so we could also share it on our class blog and start the Tui mai Tuhi atu journey.
Check out some info about the 25 students of Hauraki Class.

Day Two Fun

To see the document click Wero.  

The following day we held a Technology Challenge across the whole Syndicate. Students were randomly grouped into 4 and given a task to build a structure from newspaper,  some other equipment and a strict timeframe.


This was a real challenge and the students had to dig deep to persevere. All 18 groups worked extremely well together considering some of them are new to the Syndicate and the School. they really are building their skills to work collaboratively and constructively. When the time was up they had about 10 minutes to take it outside and attach it to the ground ready for testing. The testing with a leaf blower caused great excitement!!. 

It was a lot of fun testing all 18 structures to see if they could with stand 'a storm'.  What we did notice was the need for students to investigate ways to develop strength in a structure, which are some skills we will look at in the coming year. It was a fun start.

2018 Two Thousand and Eighteen

Room 9 morphed into the Hauraki Class in 2017 when we shifted into the new Senior Syndicate ILE space with two other classes, part way through the year. Now, we start 2018 altogether and will experience this new style of learning and operating together for the full yearly cycle. Day One started with a session of really getting to know each other and start to bond together in our Hauraki class.

We followed this up with a scavenger hunt session altogether, to start to learn some stuff about each other.



For the new Year 5 students to Te Waka Ako the excitement of finally getting to unbox their new chromebooks was realised after morning tea. True excitement! And for many of our previous students this was the first time they had used their chromebooks since the end of school in 2017.


We had a quick brainstorm altogether of what we remembered or what made sense, when using digital technology safely. Their enthusiasm to recall and discuss all the 'rules' was heartening for the staff. They have a very responsible attitude to being Cybersmart.

The Year 6 students were willing, eager and excited to share their knowledge with the Year 5 students of how to use the google drawing tool in a simple exercise.

Their task was to create a name tag with a photograph for their goal kete and their equipment box.

                   

Using de Bono Thinking Hats for our Celebration Day Reflection

Our Inquiry this year has been preparing products and signs and sustainability ideas for our school Celebration Day.  The students worked extremely hard to create Tote Bags to sell in Hauraki and they were very successful, selling nearly all of the 85 available to sell. After the event we used deBono thinking hats to reflect on all that we did.  The Year 4 students also got to create a bag as well as grow plants from seeds and reflect on these. Their slideshows and explanations are below.

 

Summer Blogging Programme

Well we have been remiss again at putting our work on our class blog. AND we have done sooooo much this term too! The Hauraki student blogs have lots of work posted onto them so be sure to check them out. there are photos of Inquiry work and our Celebration Day Gala.
Over the summer break all of Te Waka Ako are registered to take part in the Summer Blogging programme. This programme allows students to enter work onto their blogs from a programme set up by Auckland University.  They gain points for blogs of work they post and for comments they make on other peoples' work. After 4 weeks the tally is made and the 3 top students get a prize pack of lots of goodies.

Today we experimented with old activities from past seasons. Keep an eye out for their summer learning!!

Nexus Science Show

         

WOW! What fun was the Science Man and his Science Show. An hour of illusions and experiments in the name of science was experienced by the whole school. 

These videos include Abby using a leaf blower to keep a large model Earth in the air and a mini rocket going off! 

When we got back to the classroom, everyone was so excited we decided to share our experiences and any questions we had, especially about the magical experiments. 

  

Toby was super excited!

Ayva's thoughts on the Science Show

JD has a say. 

        Hauraki's Year 4 students had a lot to say after such a great session, as well, so we have included their thoughts to our class 

blog. 

Have a look at the personal blogs of Hauraki's Year 5 and Year 6 students for their reactions. 

Making giant Bubbles! 

Ski Camp Slideshows

All the students who attended the 2017 Ski Camp to Mt Ruapehu spent time before and after the trip creating a booklet or slideshow with work related to the event. They have all spent lots of time personalising them and reflecting on their time away and posted them onto their own blogs. A cross section of some fabulous examples follows.

Antonio's


Kayci's



Joyce's

Stunning Mt Ruapehu Ski Camp!

Room 9 or now better known as Hauraki, are part of the senior school Te Waka Ako Innovative Learning Environment. In Week 5, sixty five of our Year 5 and 6 students went to National Park to ski and snowboard at Whakapapa on Mt Ruapehu. The students had two days on the mountain learning these new skills.  After months of preparation and weeks of anxiety over the weather, the week arrived and was absolutely fabulous!  

The students worked with new adults and student groups, they negotiated new environments, they listened, questioned and learnt. They were challenged and extended and needed to persevere to succeed. The feedback from many different quarters outside our community was our students were respectful, polite, well behaved and just pleasant people to be around.  

Their success was being able to race each other after only two days. Their success was in the feedback they got from the public again and again. To see students with two days experience negotiating Rock Garden or Happy Valley slopes is memorable and shows how capable they are.

In the learning of the skill they learnt to rely on themselves to get better, their time practising by themselves was when they made the most gains. They also learnt to help and encourage each other, and then celebrate each other's success. But aside from the learning of a new physical skill like skiing or snowboarding they learnt to be open to a new experience in general. Being a long way from home, trusting and respecting a wide range of adults, focussing in on themselves to look after themselves and their property, developing new friendships, making the most of all the opportunities they were given, opening their eyes to an environment so many had never experienced and building awareness of the world around them.

They were amazing and we couldn't have asked for a better bunch.  All the adults who participated in the trip were very proud of them. As teachers, we hope the experience will inspire our students and their families that attended to apply their learnings and perseverance in many different areas of their lives. As well as go back and try again!

Following will be some slideshows that include the students reflections. 

Year 4 on a Roll

JD's Language work with subject verbs agreements
 

Abigail's Name Tag 

As mentioned before Te Waka Ako had some Year 4 students join our 'family'. They have had to learn to use chromebooks in a hurry so they can participate in work the Year 5 and 6 students are doing. We have been completing Cybersmart and chromebook use workshops with them so they learn the many skills they need. Today we looked at sharing our work through blogging and the process of creating a blog to share. Here are some examples of what they have been doing. Please leave a comment and feedback for them.

Faith's de Bono hat thinking about the move to our new space....Te Waka Ako

Ayva's comic strip about being Cybersmart. 

Toby's writing about Taekwondo skills we are learning in PE

BOOK WEEK DRESS UP

Book Week in Week 2 was a huge success for the whole school. We had a visiting poet who was very funny to listen to. She was a drama teacher when she was younger and so she was very 'dramatic' when she presented her poems. She also got students to help her present. During the week a book fair was on site and our community supported this extremely well, so we had lots of books we could purchase for the school library and resource room. On the final day the school had a character dress up day. Hauraki did particularly well at getting into the fun of it. We had some very creative ideas like half Romeo, half Juliet.

Hauraki Class looking awesome in book character dress ups on the steps of our new building - Te Waka Ako. 

With their teacher Mrs Potato Head.