He Puna Kawenga

Sharing our narrative writing with our buddies! We are working together to find something to work on and positives about her writing! 

 During practical learning last term we were set the challenge to hand sew our own headphone bags. It took a lot of persistence (especially as most of us had never done anything like this before!). This term we finished them off - we are so proud of our efforts! You can see more of our finishing bags on our personal blogs.  ]

 We cannot believe we are already in the last term of the year. This will be a busy year for our year 6's as they prepare to move on to intermediate next year. This week we participated in New Zealand Shake Out Day. This meant that on Thursday morning, Miss Candish yelled 'EARTHQUAKE' and we practiced what we would do in the case of a real earthquake. It was a good refresher for us. We also took part in Pink Shirt Day (Anti-bullying day). We talked about how to stand up for ourselves and for each other. We tried to be the very best version of ourselves!

   Celebrating read a good book week! We found a sunny spot to enjoy our favourite books!

 In He Puna Kawenga we have been learning about the water cycle. We understand that at the beginning of the cycle (when the rain falls) it is mauri / pure. As the water makes it's way to our oceans, the mauri is lost. We brainstormed ways that we could do our bit to help our oceans stay clean. The year 5/6 classes went out to Castlecliff beach with rubbish bags and gloves! We spent an hour searching the beach and sand dunes for rubbish that people leave behind (we had fun too!)

This term we are spending lots of time learning about water through hands on learning tasks. One of the tasks was to work interdependently to create a waka using different materials. Here are some of our finished creations!

Term 3, week 1 was a success! We all enjoyed catching up with each other again after the holidays. This week, we did some team bonding to practise working interdependently. Our challenge was to try and stack cups using only a rubber band and a piece of string each. We had lots of success! 

This term for active learning, we have been busy designing, creating and making! We all brought in a variety of recyclable items and designed a garden sculpture. The outcome is pretty cool! We are so proud of our creations.        

Over the last couple of weeks we have been having hockey lessons. It is a great way to get outside and get our bodies moving! We have learnt to hold a hockey stick correctly and dribble the ball around cones. Next week we are going to practise passing and trapping the ball.         

We have been given a challenge to come up with as many solutions to these maths puzzles as we can! As a class we had to analyse each solution to determine whether they solve the puzzle or not. Can you figure out a solution to the puzzles?        

Here are some more activities that He Puna Kawenga have been working on. Kayesschen has created a new design for a pair of rollerblades using Google Images. Aren't they fantastic? Charmony has found items around her home to create her own shape monster. Here is a little bit more about her... Name: Happy Little Rocket Monster  My Happy little monster wakes up early in the morning and she like to smile all day she is never sad. She does not talk but she likes to listen. She likes loud music and she likes to rock to the beat. She also likes to stand there and stare! Until she falls.   Cazna has created a poster full of hilarious jokes! LOL Well done He Puna Kawenga

The students of He Puna Kawenga have been doing lots of fantastic learning from home!  Here are some of the things they have done:  Elizabeth's tall tower:  Lily created an ANZAC poppy: Rachel has been reading in the dark using a torch to see! Ka pai He Puna Kawenga.

For the first three weeks of Term 1 2020, during maths we have been doing inspirational maths. This means we have been doing a range of activities involving different maths skills. Firstly, we used our knowledge of position and orientation to create our own flagpoles in groups. Next, we focused on transformation by creating a piece of art that showed how we can use rotational symmetry to display our name. We touched on our knowledge of place value by showing how numbers can be displayed in a variety of ways. Here are some photos.    

With Mrs Wilton-Scott we have been doing our own sculpture study. We have found lots of sculptures around Whanganui using Google Maps, and have now designed and created our own paper sculptures!  

The mornings have been colder this week! This means we stay indoors for fitness and move our bodies through dance. We are really enjoying it - especially Footloose. It gets our hearts racing!