Middles News
It's been a busy term with lots of exciting things happening. I would like to thank everyone for their support of our programmes. While winter illnesses have caused lots of disruption, it's been great to see students so enthusiastic about getting back to their learning. Next term, we will be hoping for some improved weather - this will also mean pulling school sunhats out of storage so that they can be worn in Term 4.
PBL
The middle syndicate have had a lot of fun this term developing fitness challenges, games, and other products to spread the word of the importance of healthy living. We began by delving into some research about healthy foods and exercises. Frosina Barlev was an awesome parent expert who came to talk to us about our hearts, what happens to them when we are doing exercise, and why it's important to look after our bodies. This was a highlight of our PBL with students getting to see the heart through ultrasound, using water balloons to simulate the heart pumping blood, and seeing our heart rates increase with exercise. The virtual adventure has also kept students enthusiastic about keeping active.
Once we had gained some knowledge about healthy living, we went on to figure out how we could spread the word about living healthy. Some students created fitness challenges, others designed fun games and challenges for the court area - look forward to seeing some of these ideas appearing on our courts next term. We also had students designing t-shirts, creating TV shows, writing books, and making posters. Sharing our work with our peers and getting feedback for improvements is also something that students now seek out and are thinking more carefully about.
Swimming and Tirohanga
On the first day of next term, we'll be starting with our swimming lessons at JC Swim School. Thank you to those of you who have offered to help. Children ought to be able to dress themselves by this age – it fits with our goal of being independent. Please consider clothes that are easy for children to put on and off, e.g. no tights. Children will need to bring their togs, a towel, swimming cap and goggles. Please ensure everything is named.
Times in the pool
Room 2: 12:30 pm
Room 3: 1.00 pm
Room 4: 1:30 pm
Dates:
Week 1:
Monday 9th OctoberTuesday 10th OctoberWednesday 11th OctoberThursday 12th OctoberFriday 13th October
Week 2:
Monday 16th OctoberTuesday 17th OctoberWednesday 18th October
Please make sure that you have filled in the form below for our day trip to Tirohanga. While this is not until week 4, there is a lot of organisation that we need to do to prepare for the day.
I hope that everyone has a lovely relaxing break. Look after yourselves and we will look forward to seeing bright smiling faces back again next term.
Ngā mihi,
Amy McBeath, Jill Kumar, Emma Anderson, and Heidi Cleland
PBL stories from students:
This term my class have been working on PBL which is all about keeping healthy. The driving question is : how can we encourage healthy living for ourselves and others?
l started by researching about being healthy like fruit and vegetables and some sports. My favourite sport is football. We did the research on Epic. After that Philip’s mum came over and used some kind of ipad thing and we looked at Philip's heart then she showed us a baby heart, a man's heart and someone having a heart attack.
Next we found some ways to spread the word of being healthy. I thought of doing a cookbook but I wanted to do a t-shirt. The t-shirt was a mini one but I did it anyway. For the design I did it on paper. For the t-shirt I thought of doing some fruit and vegetables, I did a football because like football, and I put ‘Just do it’ so I can encourage people to be healthy.
By Micah
This term for PBL I am learning how to make others eat healthy and to get fit too. Philip’s mum came and told me a lot about the heart. She told me the rib cage protects your heart and then she used an ultrasound on Philip then she gave me an oximeter. I put on the oximeter. It showed me how fast my heart was pumping. Then I went to do a lap around the court. Then I put the oximeter back. I noticed my heart pumped faster. For my project I made a healthy book. In the book I put healthy smoothies. One of the smoothies was a banana and cherry smoothie. The second smoothie was a blueberry and strawberry smoothie. My other was a blueberry and apple smoothie. I learned that there is a lot of ways to be fit that is fun.
By Lucca