Thursday, August 27, 2015

Gymnastics

From now until the end of the term we will be heading to the hall to practice our gymnastics.  This week we started with different types of rolls on the mats.  

Pencil Roll

Straight arms and legs

Waiting in line

Using the 'core' muscles to turn

Ears tucked in

We are also learning how to 'stretch, straddle, tuck and pike' in preperation for some of the other gymnastics moves that we will be learning to do.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Lucy's story

This is the wonderful story that Lucy wrote this morning.... what fantastic creative writing!!






Monday, August 24, 2015

WOW work on the ipads...

Two of today's wow workers did an amazing job on the ipad.  They wrote about what they have been learning about Shakleton's Hut, including pictures using Book Creator.

Lejla did a fantastic job on her free writing too!


Thursday, August 20, 2015

Dress for the cold

Our :"Dress for the Cold" day was a great success with the kids dressing up in layers of hats, scarves, gloves, ski gear and jackets.  Luckily we had left all the heaters off this morning so it really did feel like a chilly start to the day (not quite the -26 degrees they had in Antarctica on the day we spoke to the crew there).

Dressed for the weather:





Enjoying our hot chocolate:












Our new lanyards for WOW workers!!

Our clever Mrs. Di Mattina has made new lanyards for our Aroha students.  For those children who do great work they now get one with a PENGUIN on it... in keeping with our Frozen Inquiry.

Well done to our students who earned them in our literacy and maths time today!






Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Talking to Scott Base

Today the Aroha Pod were able to talk to some of the people working at Scott Base in Antarctica.  There was great excitement as our phone call connected and we were able to speak to Becky, Ben, Darryn, Tim and David.  One of the crew dressed up as a penguin and was able to email a photo through to us along with this message:

It was great fun talking with you all this morning, thanks.
When we finished David said "wow, that's the first time I've talked to a kid in 9 months!". We all enjoyed the experience and I hope the kids did too!


Here we are on the phone asking our questions:





Here are some of the stories our kids wrote after the phone call:

This morning Aroha Pod rang Scott Base on the phone.  We were very excited.  We rang at 9 o clock.  We tried on a t.v. but it did not work.  Ben was a person there, he is at Scott Base. We learnt that Penguins are friendly and there are two types of penguins in Antarctica - they are the Adelie and the Emperor. Some of the children asked questions they are Noah, Liam, Samuel and Charlotte.
By Ben

This morning Aroha Pod rang Scott Base because we wanted to learn more about Scott Base.  We talked to David, Ben, Becky, Daryn and Tim.  I asked a question that was "Why are all of your clothes orange and how many layers do you have to wear when you go outside?  Why are all of the vehicles orange?
Me and Charlotte and Kruz and Prya and Lejla and Callum and Aidan and Ben got to ask the questions.  I felt very excited to ask a question.  We said "Goodbye" as loud as we could.  They talked to me and I was amazed.
By Liam

This morning Aroha Pod rang Scott Base.  The names of the people we talked to were  Daryn, Ben, Becky, Tim and David.  They are called the Scott Base Crew.  We asked questions - my question was "How do you get around in Antarctica and what kind of transport do you have?".  All of the other children who asked the questions were Prya, Aidan, Lejla, Liam, Kruz and Eden.  Then after that we got a picture and an email.  The picture had the person in a penguin suit and he was holding a sign that said "Hi Noah" on it (see above).
By Noah

Today Aroha Pod rang Scott Base, we took 20 minutes on the phone.  The people in Scott Base were Ben, David, Becky, Tim and Darryn.  I was feeling nervous and excited.  I was nervous because I talked to Scott Base and excited because I was asking my question to the Scott Base people. We tried to video conference them on the t.v. but it did not work so we rang and it worked.  A couple of people answered.  They said they have a movie theatre, gym, library, play station, workshop and dining room.  They told us they were just wearing some track pants and t-shirts inside.  Then we yelled "Goodbye".  I was happy to speak to them then I felt happy to say goodbye because they needed to do their jobs.  They all laughed at our big good bye, it went loud like "GOODBYE".
It was awesome speaking to Scott Base.  
By Hunter

This morning we phoned Scott Base.  I felt excited .  Some people asked questions.  The people at Scott Base were called Becky, Tim, Ben, David and Darryn.  We sent them a photo of us and when we cut the phone after a little bit they sent us one back saying "Hi Noah" and a picture of a man dressed up in a penguin suit.  We had fun talking to them.  It was awesome - my favourite part was shouting "Goodbye".  They answered all of our questions and now we know heaps about Antarctica, but it was sad that we didn't get to see them.
By Niah









Monday, August 17, 2015

Stories for 'Listen to reading', Week 5



Stories for this week:




                                             



                                                 



                                                  


                                                  


                                                   

Dress for the Cold





This Friday (21st August) we are going to have a ‘Dress for the Cold’ day where the children in the Aroha Pod can come dressed in winter clothing, jackets, hats, scarves and gloves in order to feel what it would be like to dress up for the cold in Antarctica.  Children can come to school wearing their winter clothes and then get dressed back into their uniform at morning tea.  
We are also going to make hot chocolate so if each child could please provide a named plastic mug to enjoy their drink from.


Here are a couple of you-tube clips of scientists showing how many layers are needed for
outside work in Antarctica, these would be a great opportunity to provoke some discussion around our inquiry topic.










Sunday, August 16, 2015

Time Lapse

Take a look at this time lapse movie taken every two hours over the course of a year in Antarctica.  It very clearly shows how short the daylight hours are in the middle of winter when the temperature drops below - 40 degrees C.  


Pic Collage

Some of our Pod children have been making Pic Collage creations on the i-pads during cultural time.  Antarctica themed pictures have captured our children's imagination and we have seen some lovely work as a result of our Inquiry topic.







Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Maths in the Aroha Pod...

We have been talking about what our Aroha students are responsible for at school.  Their responses were right on track with what we want our Whakarongo Kids to look like:

- Listen to others (try not to fidget so you can get focused)
- Understand what we are doing
- Get a buddy to help if you are stuck (before seeing a teacher)
- Get your work checked to make sure you are on track
- To LEARN !!!

We took some photos during Maths time to see if this is transferring into our programme - it sure is!!


(Just to clarify... the children do go to work with the teachers too!! )

Monday, August 10, 2015

Thank you!!!

We are soooooo impressed with all of the extra learning going on in the pod this term.  Our children are coming to school with lots of wonderful things related to our Inquiry that they have been doing at home.  

Thank you to all of our awesome families for your support!!

Aroha - image only.png

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Frozen update

Come in and check out our new look "Frozen" space next week - it is filled with the lovely art works created by Aroha Pod to celebrate all the things we are learning about.  






It looks amazing!

Monday, August 3, 2015

Antartica song...

Samuel and Noah have been working collaboratively to write (and perform to the pod) their own Inquiry song.. well done boys, your song is awesome!  



More wonderful Inquiry sharing!

Our fantastic learners have been doing lots of independent research at home about the Antarctic (and the Arctic).  We had some sharing time this morning... look at all of our great researchers!