This is a summary of teaching & learning in Harakeke Hub in Terms 1 & 2 this year.

Communication Arts

In Term One our students focused on ‘Living as Me in the World.’ To begin with, students focused on themselves and what they like to do and then explored their ancestry. During this exploration, students created a family tree that showed their immediate family. In the latter part of Term 1’s Inquiry, students worked collaboratively to create ways to celebrate students, school and community. In Visual Art, students worked together to create ‘window art’ that showed an insight into the different passions, interests or significant aspects of student’s cultures.

This term we are looking into “Me in the Universe.” To start this Inquiry, we spent 3 weeks focusing on the Sun and the Moon. In these sessions, we focused on understanding how the Sun and the Moon affect Earth. We were fortunate to have a presenter come and model to us what the solar system looks like. In writing, we focused on writing a description of either the Sun or the Moon. In Visual Art we have used “Me in the Universe” as our key theme and created pieces that show our place in the universe through symbols and colour. Before creating their calendar art, students focused on interpreting how artists communicate messages through their art and then building their technical skills in drawing and blending.

For the last two weeks, we have focused on looking at Earth Systems through the science capabilities. We spent time exploring the atmosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and cryosphere. Our focus was understanding that Earth is designed for humans to live in. Through this part of the Inquiry we focused on requirements for life, air layers, air systems, water cycle, landforms and earth’s core. Our next step is to think about the actions that our students can take to have a positive impact on the earth. To share their personal response to this topic, students will create and present a speech on an aspect of sustainability early next term.

Maths

In Term One we focused on understanding foundational concepts in mathematics which included understanding place value, reversibility and problem solving. In the first part of term we focused on developing our mathematical thinking skills when approaching addition and subtraction problems. We have now moved on to solving multiplication and division problems. This will lead us into exploring and understanding fractions next term.

Alongside strategy workshops, we have focused on patterns in algebra. We looked at sequential patterns and then moved onto repeating patterns. Students worked on identifying and growth elements or repeating elements of patterns with 1 or more variables of change. Students have begun to use tables to communicate and predict the change in variables.

Coaching

This term in coaching we have focused on giving and receiving feedback. In these sessions students have learned about giving feedback and then practised using sentence frames, which included a positive comment, next steps and a question. The key learning we focused on with feedback was making a change in the moment. It has been wonderful to see that students are independently asking for and constructively giving feedback throughout their writing process.

PE/Hau Ora and Health

We have two PE sessions every week and have focused on ball skills, jumping, throwing & catching, and kicking & receiving, throughout Terms 1 & 2. Our sports sessions start with a quick warm up, learning skills and then applying skills. We have really enjoyed seeing the expertise students have from their sporting endeavours outside of school. Students have also had a focus on working collaboratively through group games. Alongside PE sessions, we also have fitness sessions every day.

In Health this term we have explored maintaining healthy relationships, communicating emotions and managing challenging situations. Throughout Health, it is important for students to recognise when they need support and who to go to for support. 

This has linked with our whānau time where we explored where our values come from and we created shared values for the Hub. These values include manaakitanga (respect/ hospitality), sharing, sportsmanship, tae ana ki (inclusiveness), motuhaketanga (independence), auahatanga (creativity), mahi tahi (collaboration), confidence, and leadership. Our whānau time now focuses on the community and what resources are out there to support us.

Te Reo Māori

In Te Reo Māori we have focused on developing our repertoire of karakia, whakatauki and waiata across the school. While our Kapa Haka group has focused on their performances, as a hub we have worked on singing with appropriate volume and pitch. It was wonderful to get together in our buddy singing groups and be able to sing shared waiata together. As Matariki draws closer, our Te Reo session will focus on exploring and understanding this significant time of the year.