Sunday 28 June 2015

Week 10 Term 2

Hi Families,

It has been another busy week in LC2 as we continue on our Immersion journey.  

We have explored aspects of the Maori culture, in particular art and well known legends like Maui and the Sun and Maui and the Fish.

We explored the importance of the koru in Maori culture and what it represents.

We created our own piece of art.  Korus are tricky to draw!!  We persevered however and we are pleased with the results.


A Place to Call Home

We have been discussing and finding out about indigenous people groups from around the globe.  It made us think about which countries we associate ourselves with.






Ben's Blog Post
We have been thinking about Indigenous people from all around the world.  We started thinking about where we are from.  Kerry suggested that we should do some passports to show the country or countries our countries are from.  We liked the idea.

Text and Photos by Ben.



Tiarna using a mirror to draw a self portrait accurately.

Yara finding the Saudi Arabian flag.
Visual Literacy
We have spent a lot of time responding to 'visual literacy' this week.  One series of photographs we have looked at carefully is the 'Toys' series by Gabriele Galimberti.  Take a look at this powerful collection of photos of children from around the world with their most precious toy.  The children have recorded their responses and wonderings on post it notes.  We will continue to explore these images next week.




Another series we have looked at is on the website boredpanda.com and it is the collection '25 of the Most Dangerous and Unusual Journeys to School in the World.'  These images have evoked some strong responses from the children and some very interesting wonderings such as 'Why would you put your life in danger just to go to school?'  'I wonder if ................

Layla

Zarlia

Zoe

Fractions
We have continued to explore fractions with children opting in to my workshops during which we have watched videos, participated in quizzes and explored fractions!!




Can We Manage Our Time And Resources and Team Building.
On Friday we had lots of fun in the gym engaging in a range of tasks that tested our ability to manage our time and resources.  We also had to work within a team, ensuring everyone had a turn and that we met all the success criteria for each challenge.

The Moon Hopper Obstacle Course

The Ten Basket Challenge

The Bridge Challenge

The Skipping Rope Challenge

The Bean Bag into a Hoop Challenge

The Puzzle Challenge

Have a great week everyone!




Monday 22 June 2015

Big Catch Up Post Weeks 5 - 9

Hi Families,

Well, it has been a very long time since the last post.  Sincere apologies for that. But......sit back and enjoy this bumper edition which will hopefully catch you up on at least some of the awesome learning that has been taking place in LC2 over the past few weeks.

Projects
We have all but wrapped up our projects now and have begun our new round of Immersion (more about that later.)  Take a look at what each group got up to in the final weeks.

Town Planners
The Town Planners used all the information they had gained from the experts they had met with - David from Isthmus Architects, Mike from Universal Homes and the Hobsonville Point Land Company, to build their own town.  Finally!!!!  Initially they used different nets to create buildings and then they worked with Ray to build a house out of foam board.  Now to think about how to sell these houses!!.....

The town made out of nets!!
Ben working with Ray.

Rico and his foam board house.
The Town Planners presenting their learning to the rest of the school.

The Fashion Group
The fashion group have worked hard with Chantelle transforming a number of garments using a range of techniques.  They made display stands out of pallets with Sharyn's Dad to display all their hard work.  They also decided on a company name and designed logos.

Displaying their garments.

The mood boards where all their designs and ideas began!



Chemical Reactions
The Chemical Reactions group travelled into the city to visit the shop Lush to carry out some more research on bath bombs.  Amy talked to us about the different types of bath bombs and gave us some ideas for our own product!  Vanessa, Will's Mum,  shared a marketing plan with us and helped us to think about our target market, logo, slogan and how we needed to present and package our product.  Thanks to Vanessa, Bridgette (Malachy's Mum) and Kristine (Mikelis' Mum), the production line has started and our business, Bathzilla, is up and running.



Food Group
The group invented their own recipes and had a go at cooking them.  There was some great problem solving along the way!!  These recipes will be collated and made into a recipe book.  Some of the group had an interest in making lip scrubs and body balms too. They have investigated different ingredients and produced and packaged a range of products.

Some of the research on recipes.

Displaying our products.









All of the groups presented to the rest of the school in a variety of formats.  It was great to be able to share the journeys we have been on and receive some encouraging feedback.

The Chemical Reactions group sharing the movies they made with LC4 of their experiments.

Our New Immersion Journey Begins.....
Our new block of Immersion comes under the umbrella of Digital-Age Literacy.  Before we started to unpack what this means, I asked the children what Digital-Age Literacy means to them.  I recorded some of the responses.....


So far we have looked at a number of images of different people groups and answered questions like 'Where do these people live?'  'How are their lives the same or different to ours?'  (Multicultural Literacy and Global Awareness.)  We went on to answer the question 'Who are indigenous peoples?'  Take a look at our responses on display in the hallway outside LC2. We grouped our thinking to make links and connections.

Phoenix responded with 'I think they are endangered people.'  We thought about what the word endangered means to us.  This led us to the question 'Can people endanger other people?'  We are excited to see where this journey goes.  It is awesome watching the children drive their learning and lead it in different directions.




What Else Have We Been Up To?

Team Building.
Our dispositional focus this term has been around team building.  We have been reflecting on the following dispositions - 
-Do I lead when it is appropriate?
-Can I manage my behavioural decisions when interacting with others?
-Do I follow appropriately when someone else is leading?
-Do I support my group or team by doing jobs that need completing?

We have engaged in a range of activities and challenges that require us to take on new roles, problem solve and in some cases, send us into the pit.

Creating a piece of art.

Role playing different situations - exclusion/unkind behaviour etc.

Reflecting on the newspaper tower building challenge.


Literacy and Maths

Using a dictionary
Testing out the instructions we have written.

Sharing the narratives we have written.
Embarking on a spelling challenge!

Practising how to spell key words.
Making our fingers stronger.

Following our interests and carrying out research to make a book.
Drafting our narratives.


The Black and White Disco
What a great way to finish the week!




Have a great week everyone!