Wednesday 23 November 2016

Delving Deeper Into Ancient Civilisations

Welcome to the last Unit of Inquiry of the year!

For this last unit, students are looking in depth at ancient civilisations through our the lens of our Where We Are In Place And Time theme.

The Central Idea is "The structure of a society reflects people's needs and what they value." It has been quite a challenge to unpack and explore but our students are enjoying their research into their chosen society. We are learning furiously and feeding our curiosity with information about the Egyptians, Maori/Polynesians, Macedonian Empire, Ancient India and the Mongols. Our class is busy, it's buzzing, it's full of books and conversations that are rich and reflect a deep level of thinking and making connections.

We started the unit by looking closely at the Fundamental Human Needs and the Timeline of Civilisations. 


We watched video of the history of the world through time which the students found mesmerizing. Many of us watched it more than a few times just fascinated by the changes that were happening. 


As part of this unit, we also visited the Auckland Museum. Our class enjoyed exploring, asking questions and making connections during a rich session with our lovely educator. We learned about gods, artefacts and tools used by different cultures throughout history. Our biggest surprise was learning that we use the same kind of tools today to do similar jobs but in different ways.













To further our understanding of ancient civilisations and develop an appreciation for their contribution to history and how we, in our current time, still use some of the tools and technologies they developed, our students will be making bread. We have chosen recipes that closely resemble the methods used long ago. 

Here is a quick video explaining briefly about the history of bread and how it was made in Pompeii.


We will wrap up this unit with a group project where children will invent their own civilisation complete with food, clothing, shelter, art, religion, transportation, defense and government.

Enjoy the rest of the term and the wonderful weather. 

Elean

Thursday 24 March 2016

Signing the Class Treaty


Our annual trip to Karaka Bay took place on a beautiful summer's day, hot and humid.  The air was filled with the sound of the waves and buzzing of cicadas.  We walked there, chatting and enjoying the opportunity to be outdoors on such a glorious day.  At Karaka Bay, Matua Paul welcomed all new families and new staff with a mihimihi.  The senior students performed the Pa Mai, a welcome song. We finished the ceremony with a greeting or hongi and shared kai.

To view photos

Wednesday 23 March 2016

iTime

We kicked off the year engaging in iTime.  This time was dedicated to both inquiry and personal reflection.  Students chose a subject of interest and used the subject to learn more about themselves as learners, inquirers as well as members of a learning community.  As teachers, we felt greatly privileged to connect with students, get to know them and their interests as they worked through the stages of their inquiry and personal growth.

iTime in Room 27 means a time for independent, individual inquiry into the self as a learner.  The subject area is only the 'hook', the pathway through which students learn about themselves as learners, their strengths, their challenges.  They learn to set goals for themselves such as becoming more open-minded, more tolerant or take more risks. To conclude, students reflect on their learning and self development and identify what they can improve on next time.

Enjoy this short video!






























Check out Alex's blog

Read Alex's laser tag recount ...




Monday 12 October 2015

Weather Inquiry Blog

The intermediates have a new blog page for their unit of inquiry. The link is on the Y 7/8 Page which is in the toolbar above.

You can also access it from this link!

Tuesday 15 September 2015

Sharing Our Learning

Last week we had a great turn out for our Student Led Conferences. Thank you to all the parents who attended!

















Monday 31 August 2015

Happy Birthday Maria Montessori

via
Today is Maria’s birthday, she was born in 1870, in Chiaravalle, Italy. This is an important time for us because she designed the Montessori philosophy and she developed a system that could help children’s education.

She became the first woman to get a medical degree in Italy when she graduated from the University of Rome in 1896.

Montessori worked with children who were developmentally challenged where she thought of the philosophy of Montessori Education.

In Montessori, different children and year groups are all in the same class. To help the children learn, Maria made materials herself. Thousands of schools around the world use Montessori education. She came up with having freedom for what work you could decide to do, but also with responsibility.

I think Maria Montessori is a great role model to all of us, who are in our class because if she didn’t create this amazing education system, we wouldn’t be able to have the freedom we do or be able to use the cool materials we do.

By Stella