Kiwi Sport - Ripper Rugby Skills

As part of our PE 'winter sports skills', Whanakitanga Whare have been enjoying participating in Ripper Rugby Skills sessions facilitated by the friendly staff from Counties Manukau Sport.

Here are some images of some of the activities we were learning to do in Term 2...

Visual Art Elective - Portraiture

In Term 2, 2015 during Cultural Groups electives sessions, the Year 5-8 students in Cultural Art have been learning about portrait composition (lines/shapes) and contrast (shading) with Miss Osborne. 

Drawing Lesson - Ms Osborne's modelling of portrait composition..

Here are our Year 5-8 akonga creating their own portrait studies in response to today's lesson:

Fun At Gymsport

On Thursday the 21st May, Whanakitanga Whare had their first session at Bruce Pulman Park in Papakura. 

Here are some pictures of what we got up to...

On the mat - learning how to 'lunge'.

Lyric showing us all how to launch off of the small trampoline.

Going through our paces on the bars and mats.
"Roll like a sausage!" Cherie tells the students as they come through.

Denzel smiling his way around the bar roll.
"You can do it!" says Matua Thomas.

Fatu showing us how to make it over the pommel horse.

The trampoline is the highlight for Denzel, too!

Cultural Art - Expressing 'Who We Are'!

Here are some examples of the Visual Art activities we have done with Ms Osborne in Term 1, 2015.

Early in Term 1, our Year 5-6 class created portraits in a 'Pop Art' style by taking photos and then using the data projector to trace an outline (with a lot of help from the teacher). 

Next, we used a mixture of crayons and pastels to create bright, bold images that reflected both WHO WE ARE and the comicbook-like style of 'Pop Art'. 

A close up shot of our wall display of Pop Art styled portraits!

These were then put on display as a collaborative collage, to give it that Andy Warhol-esque finish, and *wow* the visitors to our learning hub!

We also did some individual Pasifika 'flower' designs, modelled by Ms Osborne and completed using water colour paint and pencils, to later be uses as borders for our wall displays and to add some culluturally appropriate imagery to our learning hub space... 

Don't they look welcoming? We think so, too! :-)

Poetic Writing

For our creative writing lessons, we have been learning how to use our describing words to express our responses to the things we have been learning about during the course of our integrated studies. 

What is extra special about this heartfelt poem written by Lyric, is that she has written at home, in her own time, and because she wanted to share her thoughts and feelings about these brave men in a poem she could share with the rest of us at school!

Our poems were written at the beginning of Term 2, when our whole school had been learning all about the ANZAC soldiers in the lead up to the 100 year commemorations of Gallipoli this ANZAC Day. 

In E1, we had been developing our own understanding of what life may have been like for our fallen soldiers, and how they made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. 

Lyric's poem is a great example of how her own response to what she had learned around this topic allowed her to create an extremely thoughtful piece using poetic writing. 

Well done, Lyric!

Our Inquiry Learning 'Wanderings' About Flight

"How does a helicopter stay in the air?" - asked by Nepia.
"How does a jet plane's engine work?" - asked by Shania.
"How do you fly a hot air balloon?"  - asked by Shelby.
"How do they keep or fix the planes when they've finished moving people?"  - asked by Colsey.
"How long can planes fly for?" - asked by Lahrenzo.
"How do firework rockets fly?" - asked by Onyx.
"Why did the Wright brothers want to invent the first plane?" - asked by Lyric.
"Why is a space rocket bigger than an aeroplane?" - asked by Fatu.
"Why do aeroplanes need an engine?" - asked by Denzel.
"Why doesn't gravity stop planes from flying up so high?" - asked by Chaye.

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to E1. We're an awesome Year 5 and 6 class of High Ten Learners (most of the time!). 

In Term 2, we'll be learning all about Flight. Krystal is looking forward to finding out about planes and doing gymnastics. Shelby is keen to start the using the Chromebooks. "And me!", said Shania and Fatu. 

Denzel and the other boys in our class really enjoyed playing rugby when Mr Rush was supervising us the other week. We hope we get to do it again, soon! 

Lyric says that cultural groups are "awesome and fun," and that she is really excited about our new inquiry learning topic. Nepia says that Kapa Haka is amazing.

Chaye, Lyric and Colsey were out painting a fence for a member of our community today as part of their Look At Me Now programme. They came back all excited and told us all about it! 

So, that's us for now - we look forward to sharing our learning and experiences with you on our new blog. 

Ka kite ano.

Finding out how our brains work to help us to learn!