Here's a look into what's been happening in the Year 7/8 Hub.

Reading - Novel Study

This week concludes the fourth week of our Novel Study. Students have been asked to complete many activities around the main themes of the novel they are reading, describe their emotional response to big events that happen in the text, explore new and interesting vocabulary from the text as well as relating to the experiences that they main characters have. These activities are designed for students to delve deeper into the text to analyse, discuss and express their personal opinion to current issues that teens and young adults are dealing with today. 

Writing - Bus Writing/Lyrics

This week concludes our writing to the Ministry of Education about the buses that are supplied to transport the students to technology. Student's expressed their view and feelings about the Technology buses and how cramped they are. They also used Covid-19 to express how they felt about travelling so close to others when our priority around hygiene is so important.

We have now started our second piece of writing around our Integrated Learning. Students are currently rewording song lyrics for Crowded House's - Four Seasons in One Day to 'Four Feelings in One Day' and Boston - More than a Feeling. Students are using their understanding of the Zones of Regulation and the emotions that are associated with each zone to rewrite these classic songs. 

Maths - Number Knowledge/Strategy

We will be concluding our learning around Number Knowledge and Strategy at the end of this term. We have been highly impressed the students learning in this area, many have easily completed well over half a years learning in Number despite having only 13 weeks of learning in the classroom. 

Integrated Learning - Erica Yin - Four Feelings Presentation

Over the past three weeks, we have been learning about the Zones of Regulation. The Zones of Regulation refer to one's mental, emotional, cognitive and behavioural states of mind.

• The Red Zone is used to describe extremely heightened states of alertness and intense emotions. A person may be elated or experiencing anger, rage, devastation, or terror when in the Red Zone.
• The Yellow Zone is also used to describe a heightened state of alertness and elevated emotions, however one has more control when they are in the Yellow Zone. A person may be experiencing stress, frustration, anxiety, excitement, silliness, the wiggles, or nervousness when in the Yellow Zone.

• The Green Zone is used to describe a calm state of alertness. A person may be described as happy, focused, content, or ready to learn when in the Green Zone. This is the zone where optimal learning occurs.
• The Blue Zone is used to describe low states of alertness and down feelings such as when one feels sad, tired, sick, or bored.

We are now starting the learn about how the body responds in these different zones. We will be looking into facial expressions as well as the  body language that is involved with each zone to help develop students own self awareness for themselves and being able to read others. 

Koru Games

This week we continued with our skill based training in all of our sports in preparation for the September competition. We are glad to see many students trying new sports and being open to learning new skills. The Netball and Rugby Sevens Teams have been named. 

Currently, we have a large amount of volleyballers and are in need of support to take the teams. We are needing at a bare minimum, 2 adults to take two teams for the competition. No need to worry about not knowing the rules, you can be taught the simple rules in about 5 minutes so that you are able to confidently ref the game. Currently, all students involved in Volleyball can be trained at school so there will be no commitment needed for Tuesdays, just the competition on the 15th-17th of September. 

Upcoming Important Dates

Monday 22nd June

- Whole school assembly, 2pm

Tuesday 23rd June

- BOT Meeting

Monday 29th June

- Whole school assembly, 2pm

Friday 3rd July

- Term 2 Ends

Monday 20th July

- Teacher Only Day

Tuesday 21st July

- Term 3 Begins