Te-Reo 2022

 In term 1 we focused on learning our morning karakia, days of the week and our class names as well as attending kapa haka sessions to learn some waiata. Unfortunately due to the nature of the term with covid we only had a couple of kapa haka sessions and were unable to have the time in these to really learn any new waiata. As we had our BSU focus this term instead of having longer Te Reo sessions once a week we had our Te Reo focuses at different times of the day e.g. morning karakia time at 9, days of the week during our homeroom sessions and throughout the day we were learning to recognise our classroom/hub names.

We also used the Te Reo language for our movement breaks. The tamariki responded really well to this and thoroughly enjoyed when we do the movement breaks. We have these up on the wall beside our teaching station and can pull them off as a visual reminder if students need additional support to the oral language being used.

We also spent some time looking at our cultures and developed our cultural wall for this year celebrating where we all come from. We ensured that we talked about how we are all New Zealanders and that some of us have other cultures that we identify with also. We looked through this cultures slideshow to learn a bit more about each of our cultures.

Term 2:

We have continued learning the morning karakia, days of the week and our class names as well as attending kapa haka sessions to learn some new waiata, although this has been difficult as the children are not able to learn at the pace that the tutor is working at.

We have also been exploring the names of all the buildings in the school and when we leave the classroom to go to another space we use the name of that space for example we go to the whare manaaki at least 3 times a week and I feel if you asked the children where it is they would know. We do lots of little snippets of learning throughout each day. We have also explored a few more picture books for our story-sharing time that have a lot of Te-Reo in them or that are Māori stories also. See this link to check out the books we have explored. 

 

We used the How Maui slowed the sun as our book review for the leaders of literacy and it was exciting to see the children retelling the story in their own words and saying what they really liked about the story.

For next term: To help with our new children and whānau transitioning into our space I am going to put the Karakia up on the wall in the space of the classroom that we do it so they are able to see it and make connections to it. We are also looking at Karakia Kai and when we can do this. Moving to do Kapa Haka within our own space so we will explore the waiata and actions that we want our tamariki to be learning and strong in.

Term 3: Ekk Lockdown 2021

 All our programmes are planned as per our school guidelines and include all important information from the NZ curriculum. This term there was a lot of repetition in our term as we really had 3 weeks before we went into lockdown and then three weeks when we came back. The break in the middle made it more challenging to get as much learning done as we wanted to. I have included planning from week 4 but we only got to do two days of this before the lockdown.

Reading and writing

We have been teaching literacy together this term and I think this has been a really positive thing for the students. When we came back from lockdown Nicole and I made the decision not to switch groups as there was only three weeks left and we wanted to get as much strong learning done as possible during those weeks. We have continued to change our groups as much as possible to cater for the progress of different students, so they are in the best group for them. We have also been using topics that are familiar to the students for writing so they can produce their best work.

Reading plans (with assessment on plan): Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10

Writing: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10

Writing Assessment

Maths

We started the term with some algebra this term and we did two weeks on pattern making. We grouped the students according to the data we had from both our algebra testing and our assessment of their number skills as for some that didn’t recognise numbers still they obviously needed to work on simpler colour or object patterns.

Algebra Plan

Algebra Assessment

We then started working on number in week 3 but we were also starting this routine again and working with a new teacher to welcome into our classroom space so we hadn’t really started strongly before we went into lockdown. After we came back from lockdown we started using number knowledge pathways to more strongly get an idea of exactly what they know and need to work on. They loved them as well.

Week 3, Week 4, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10

Math Assessment

Shared Reading, Phonics and Poetry

This term for reading we used fairytales which were from the national library so they also included a CD as well as the story so that we both read the story and listened to the song too. This was a great connection for the students and they enjoyed having the singing aspect. We have continued to work on having two groups for phonics so that we can better cater for the needs of the students but we also did it so that we were working on the same poem that we would have for our poem of the week. We didn’t always get to the activity for the poem but we always did a lot of work on them throughout the week.

Shared story Plan

Phonics Plan

Poetry plan

Health/PE/Fitness/Zone/Behaviour/Mindfulness

These areas were one place that we really missed out on due to the lockdown as we didn’t get to do much of either food and nutrition or for our small balls unit due to when the lockdown occurred. We also had a fire safety issue arrive in the class and therefore needed to start this unit when we came back from the lockdown in order to ensure the students understood how important fire safety is. We have continued to improve our fitness and have been getting out there for more and more time which is great.

Plan and small ball assessment

Te Reo

This was another areas affected by the lockdown as they weren’t for the most part being exposed to Māori in their homes during this time so it meant when they came back we basically had to start again and repeat the lessons that we had done at the beginning of the term. So for this reason the assessment doesn’t look that great as we didn’t get the long stretch of time we needed.

Te Reo plan

Te Reo Assessment

Inquiry - Science and Drama

Our science this term definitely went a lot better than our drama. We focused on simple concepts for science and this meant that they were able to develop an understanding quite well. We will continue working on this next term and integrate our technology into this unit to get more out of both areas. For drama we have only really just gotten started and we need to do a lot more in this area to work for the students to build a stronger understanding of drama skills.

Drama Plan

Science Plan

Having fun with Te-Reo!

 Te Reo Language Term 2

This term we worked on increasing our integration of the Te Reo language we were teaching. At the beginning of the term we were learning about shapes and so we brought this into our language teaching. The students used some of the same games/activities from our shape lessons to learn the maori words for the shapes at the same time. We had lots of fun with this and the students enjoyed learning about the different names.

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We also did an integrated art/english/maori unit with our myths and legends art. They always enjoy the myths and legends work that we do and again we took this into creating sun artworks in the classroom, looking at koru symbols also and what these mean. We took this up a different step this year by also using the knowledge we learnt from Christine Brown about harakeke. We decided to take the students out and harvested harakeke. We said the karakia to the right and then we harvested it as we had been shown. Finally we put out mats in our classroom, set up appropriate protocols and had the students try to plait some flax as they did in Maui and the sun. This was very difficult but I think it was so worthwhile for the students and us to do and I would definitely do it again in the future. I think this was great to use our skills and actually incorporate some of the other areas that are important in maori culture, not just language.

Te Reo Plan

Te Reo Assessment

Term 1 Evidence

 Cultural Responsiveness

We looked at our goals from last year and then I reflected upon where I got to with this. I celebrated more language weeks and am trying to slowly use more vocab in the classroom in terms of Maori language first and then bring in other cultures that are in our classroom. We also put out a survey for all the families to be able to share all the things that are important in terms of their culture. We used this to fill in our know the learner slides so we know what is important to celebrate within the classroom.

Setting up for Success

As part of starting the year off well and setting our classrooms up for success we set up our cultural wall and worked through some activities to think about our cultures. We created this cool display where they have their work showing their country's flag. We emphasised New Zealand Culture first, as we are all New Zealanders. We worked through this slideshow. Looking at all the different cultures represented in our class.

Te Reo Language

We focused on some basic Te Reo work this term. We spent a bit of time on our classes and used an activity in particular that Lee-Anne had given to us at the teacher only day. We added to the sorting by also including the faces of people in the school. The students have loved interacting with this on the wall. We also worked on greetings and have added another karakia to our everyday by having the karakia kai also (as well as our morning and end of the day karakia). We continue to work on adding more Te Reo throughout the day.

Te Reo Assessment

Te Reo Plan

Lockdown learning/teaching/blogging

During our time at home in lockdown we still aimed to maintain the best possible learning programme for our students while also understanding that this was a tough time for students and families. Therefore we provided them with resources before they left and then also set up daily challenges that they could take part in. We tried our best to continue their Te Reo learning by sending home their mihimihi template and including te reo in our daily challenges. Here is a link to each week’s lockdown planning: week 1, week 2, week 3, week 4, week 5. We tried making it fun and engaging for them and had to think about what resources and equipment they would have available to use at home. e also wanted to make sure we were exposing the students to aspects of what we would be learning about if we had still been at school following our long term plan. This planning then went on the site, here is an example of that on our site. Students shared their learning with us and we would put it on our blog.

There was a lot of new learning I experienced whilst undertaking the home learning and I enjoyed the relationships and support from my team :D

      

 

 

Celebrating our Cultures

 This year we had another cultural day where we celebrated our cultures through creating the wall below. We identified the cultures of our families through a cultural survey sheet and also how we are able to best support them and their cultures. This was noted down in our know the learner document and transferred onto linc ed. On our school wide cultural celebration day we began to look at our different cultures through this slide and we had a shared lunch together as well as a cultural show and a flag ceremony.

We love celebrating the cultures within our classroom and will use these greetings with the students. During the lockdown time at home I also responded to student work using some language to them for praising their efforts.

Creative and Innovator- Learning about our culture and heritage.

Through our inquiry learning this year we have been learning about our culture thinking about the fact that our nation is a bicultural nation and learning about how our country came to have two cultures of people in it. We learnt about the first arrival of people and then the European settlers. We also thought about how this affects our lives now. Our school has English names and Maori names each due to different reasons. We were really trying to reflect upon how our country came to be the way it is now and the fact that although we may all have different heritages we are all New Zealanders.

Inquiry planning

Cultural Staff Meeting with Christine Brown: Harakeke

In Term 3 we had a great cultural staff meeting all about harakeke which was led by Christine Brown the RTM. We learnt how to use it and the protocols behind it. We then used this knowledge to harvest our own harakeke and to prepare it and use the stalks we prepared to create our own mats. This was such a strong and powerful experience, I didn’t really know anything about weaving except that you go over and under when you weave. So to learn the things that actually go behind it and the whole process from harvesting was amazing and I really enjoyed it. I always enjoy the meetings that Christine delivers as it is always engaging and you always learn a lot. Here is a picture of Joanne applying what we learnt.

Reflection on criteria - Learning Focused Culture:

Reflection on criteria - Learning Focused Culture: Joanne, Nicole and I have worked together as a team to really create an environment that is rich, positive, collaborative and inclusive. We have lots of children's work displayed on the walls and have created different displays to help with their learning. We spent a very long time this term establishing deep level relationships with the students and making sure they all felt valued and special. We have created an environment where the students feel comfortable to take risks and accept challenges. We have ensured each child feels valued and are looking at all the cultures we have throughout the year and these are displayed on the wall and one is a focus each week to explore into. The students know that I have high expectations and they are learning to have them for themselves also. I have lots of fun with my students and feel it is super important to be like this to ensure trust, respect and the relationship is built right from day one.

The leadership team this year created a Setting up for Success document - That teachers needed to ensure they had in place by the end of the first term and then the Senior Leadership Team would come in and do an observation. I felt this was good and something we should have each year. My observation of my teaching was extremely good and had me feeling really proud of what I do and what we have achieved. Some quotes from my observer Andrew (Principal)

KWW Class Tree-Treaty

We have created a class tree-treaty. All students coloured in their hands to show they agree to the way we will be in the classroom.
This was a really cool activity- as Nicole, Joanne and I all had a vision of how we could do it and we collaborated all our ideas together and this is the final product. It is a great central focus point in our room and teaching space.

Learning Our Mihis

This term we have been focusing on learning our Mihi. We are starting with a brief Mihi for our younger learners.

I have modelled my Mihi to the students to show them what they can do when they are older.

This is the Mihi we are teaching our younger students

Karakia and Waiata

We start each day all together where we do the Karakia and Waiata daily.

KWW  - Kura Pounmau, Whakaute and Wawata end the day together where we do the end of the day Karakia. A different student leads this each day. 

ECE/transitions Hui - Te Whāriki Introduction

ECE/transitions Hui - Te Whāriki Introduction

On Wednesday 14 March I attended the ECE transitions hui. This is a meeting that occurs within the Hornby cluster, where Primary teachers and the feeding/local ECE centres meet and discuss things of relevance. Main focuses have been transitioning to school documents and oral language development. This session we had an expert 'Dr Kathryn O'Sullivan' on the new version of Te Whāriki (the early childhood curriculum). There is so much crossover within the document for those starting school so it was interesting to really look at this. The new document is a truly bicultural document, which is really amazing. I was able to learn so much more about this and really all of the Primary teachers walked away wishing the New Zealand curriculum could be updated in such a way. The whole meaning behind even the title being about a woven mat and the way the strands weave together to make it. It was also great to be provided with a large number of resources, such as Whakatauki cards each with their own meaning and these were something that can easily be taken back to our school and discussed at meetings with staff.


We have used the Whakatauki cards during different hub meetings:

- He purapura i ruia mai i Rangiatea e kore e ngaro - A seed sown in Rangiatea will never be lost.
We really liked this one as we found it went with our home base songs that Arama made for us.

 

Culturally Responsive: Changes to our names of spaces

2018 has brought about Change to Gilberthorpe School and has made us more culturally responsive. We have renamed all off our spaces within school grounds that represent the skills and attributes that we want our children to have.

Our school is known as Ara Tū Whakata - Gilberthorpe School.

Our topic focus for term one - has been on implementing the new changes and learning how to pronounce the names so they become everyday language for all.

I have been working really hard with making sure I use Te Ara Whakatau (Junior Hub) as much as possible and using the homebase names as often as I can so I can get familiar with these quicker. I have told the children how we are all on the same learning journey and are all trying to pronounce the names correctly.

I feel really confident with the names of spaces within Te Ara Whakatau, I now need to work on learning the names of spaces in Te Ara Takitini.

My homebase is called Te Rōpū Kura Pounamu - Means wee treasures. We are at the beginning of our learning journey who need to be looked after and nurtured.

We have been working hard on learning our name and what it means. We have also been learning a waiata for our class.

Te Rōpū Kura Pounamu Waiata:

He kākano ahau ( I am a seed)

I ruia mai i Rangiatea (From a special place)

I will never be lost

I am a seed born for greatness

Descended from a line of chiefs

He kākano ahau (  I am a seed)

He kura pounamu ahau (I am a wee treasure)