Sunday 4 September 2016

P.E Reflection # 2

We have completed our P.E rotation playing the game of Blind Throw and Boccia to develop further our Empathy and Listening learning muscles. It has been challenging to be restricted in some way to play games that require accuracy and aim. Thank you to all the students who ran these games and showed lots of patience.










Wednesday 17 August 2016

P.E Reflection

Today we played a game of Boccia. Boccia is a game that is played in the Para-Olympics. It was developed for those with cerebral palsy, those who are confined to a wheel-chair and other disabilities. 
We are learning to empathise and to listen carefully. To help us empathise better we had to play the game sitting in a chair and throw the ball with our weaker arm.
Some of the students were teachers and some were the learners. 
I thought the teachers did a good job running the game and most of the students felt they could empathise better with those who have disabilities.





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Maori Hand Games Kauri 1112

On Thursday 16th June, we had some manuhiri from the Kahurangi Dance and Performance Roopu who came and taught us some Maori Hand Games. This provided a fantastic opportunity for us to not only learn some kupu, tikanga but also exercise our Reciprocity Learning Power and practise our capacities of collaboration and imitation so as to get better at working with and learning from others.


Here is a link to some photos and videos. We have also embedded a couple for your enjoyment.













Sunday 15 May 2016

Kauri 89's Project Based Learning

Project-based learning is an approach to classroom teaching and learning that is designed to engage students in investigation of authentic problems. We looked at three topics - FUN in the bush, SAFE in the bush and LOST in the bush.  
First we created as many questions as we could around these topics using question starters on flash cards - Where, why, what, when, who, which and how.  The children then identified one broad question that interested them.  We identified which children had similar broad questions and they got together and brainstormed everything they knew already about the broad question.  


Jack C & Sam.JPGJack C & Sam.JPGJack Craft and Sam McGrath wanted to know how they could save the bush.  They had some great prior knowledge which included 1080 poison, information about DOC, Gondwana land and they knew that some people don't care about animals and the bush of NZ, these people only care about money.   The boys discussed their prior knowledge and they came up with some more questions - Why do people make houses out of wood?  Why are people dropping 1080 poison in the bush and are there any animals that are damaging kiwis. They then decided to plan and design a trap that would catch predators that are a threat to kiwis.  They created a fabulous prototype.  Their creation had a scanner on it that could pick up whether the animal walking over the scanner was a predator or an animal that we would want to keep alive such as a kiwi.  If the footprint belonged to a predator the trap would spring into action.  They also managed to camouflage their creation.  Good job boys!



Jack C & Sam.JPG





Tuesday 22 March 2016

Wednesday 16 March 2016

Mitre 10 Tough Kids 2016

On the 5th of March Parkvale Year 4-5s headed off to the Hastings Sports Park to compete in the annual Mitre 10 Tough Kids Challenge.

A record breaking 2500 kids took part in this years Tough Kid Event. It was a fantastic day and all the kids put in a huge amount of effort to get around the course. All that water certainly came in handy with a 33 degree day! Look forward to doing it all bigger and better again next year :)







Sunday 6 March 2016

Kauri 89's Newspaper Tower Challenge


Our challenge was to design and construct a model tower out of newspaper. We had to build a tower with height and stability. Our tower needed to be able to withstand a wind force.
We were given newspaper, tape and scissors to build our tower in groups of 3. Our group had to be a mix of ages and genders.
We googled images of towers to decide what was the best shape. We were allowed one device per group.

Testing: We measured and recorded the height of the final tower on the whiteboard with our group names.  We stepped away from the tower so it was at arm’s length and blew out a full breath to simulate a hurricane. 

Our Success criteria
Tower is stable - will not topple over when blown on (not held).  
The tower is free standing - not secured to a table, floor, furniture or the wall.
The tower is tall.
The tower looks like your chosen google picture.
Key Competencies - Relating to Others, Participating & Contributing and Thinking.

We got an i-pad and took a photo with our group in the photo of our tower. 
These are our some of our results! 

This was not an easy task, people had to show perseverance as well as listen to each other so that they could work as a team.


Jack, Kady and Leo
Charlotte, Declan and Henrietta





















Christina, Jayden & Brad
Blake, Logan & Livy

Wednesday 2 March 2016

Kauri Camp 1211 2016

1211 Camp Omatua 2016


On Wednesday 24th February Kauri 1211 headed off to Camp Omatua to stay for two nights. We had an enjoyable time being involved in many fun activities: technology challenges, bush bashing and safe river crossing, making cardboard cars for our drive-in movie night and swimming/tubing on the river. 

Many thanks to the camp parents (Natania McCann, Sarah Gambirazzi, Todd Rogers, Shane Chote, Lynn Cox, Kent Morse, Karen Karena, Anna Toki, Amber RogersChristina Ross and also Mr Lowe) who made the camp possible and such an enjoyable time for all. Here is a link to photos highlighting our stay at Camp Omatua



Sunday 28 February 2016

Kauri 89 Camp Omatua

Kauri 89 have had the most amazing time at Camp Omatua last week (Feb 22 - 24).  We had parents who were so helpful and looked after our children in a caring and kind manner.  A BIG thank you to Bevan Kyle, Phil Nicholson, Catherine McGrath, Linda Wallace, Paul Langford, Kelly Hetterley, Murray Orr, Adelle Morton, Stacey Craft, Kylie Miller, Mike Kendall, Jae Davies and Tam Macken.

We had loads of fun completing the technology challenges on the Monday: Triangle house, build a bivouac, making a pikau back pack, jump rope challenge and a lost in the bush activity.  Our Campfire kai was delicious and well worth the organised chaos of everyone preparing food in the dining room at once - Omatua stew, potato, damper and for dessert we had an orange muffin or a banana boat which were delicious! 

The next day we made vehicles for our drive in movie in the evening, this was a really busy time with children creating some wonderful cars in a variety of categories such as commercial, bling (pimp my car), futuristic and vintage with all vehicles needing comfort as a number one priority!

The children also went bush bashing and learnt some river safety techniques when crossing a river.  All of these activities usually ended in some glorious swim time in the river with the tubes and kayaks.

It was time for the clean up on Wednesday so that Kauri 1211 could enjoy Omatua.   Kauri 89 spent some time at the Puketapu Domain and finished with a well earned swim and BBQ at the Onekawa pools.  It was delightful to watch different friendships develop over the three days, Kauri 89 connected with each other, were creative and colloborative and embraced the opportunities to take risk and show confidence.


Tuesday 9 February 2016

Kauri Camp Information for Parents

FYI for all Kauri Hub  Parents

Below is a google slide of the Kauri Omatua shared at the parent information evening.


UNPACKING MANAGING OURSELVES RUBRIC












Wow, these kids worked really hard to work out what 'Mananging Ourselves for Learning' would look like if you were on Learner's, Restricted, Full or International License. 
WHY? Because we are learning to drive our own learning.