Tui Team- Rms 27-30 have shared some of their Term 2 and 3 highlights
This year Tui Team have been very excited by a new approach we are taking towards how we plan our students learning. We have been using a ‘place-based learning approach’ which puts our children, whānau and school right at the centre of everything we do.
We started with an exciting scavenger hunt around the school grounds which helped our students to ‘see’ the school with new eyes, causing them to rethink what they thought they knew about our school. Then we followed up this work by interviewing Mrs Prangley, our Deputy Principal who has worked at Oteha Valley School since the very first day that it opened, her thoughtful words inspired our children with passion to learn more about both the school and Oteha’s history.
This interest has opened lots of learning opportunities; from our local trip to a nature reserve, learning about the wildlife that surrounds us, to more formal lessons about both precolonial Māori history and the voyages of Captain Cook. The more our children learn, the more they are being inspired to ask deeper questions.
This term we are spiralling out from Oteha to study ‘Our place’ on a larger scale. We have been learning about volcanos, inspired by our proximity to Rangitoto, and we have linked this to learning to New Zealand’s rich history of Myths and Legends, including ‘Papatūānuku and Ranginui’ and ‘The Battle of the Mountains’. Some of our students have also been sharing myths from their whānau. More recently our learning has led us to meet Chris Mallows, Team leader in the Auckland Heritage Implementation Team for Auckland council. He visited the classes and spoke to our children directly about the Archaeology that can be found all around the city and what it teaches us about how life has changed in Aotearoa since Māori people first began living here.
Although we teach collaboratively much of the time, our classes are still individual and have taken their learning in some unique directions. Here is a little insight into the different learning that has been taking place in each class.
Room 27
In room 27 we have been really enjoying giving presentations about our independent research. Using lots of teacher approved texts and a small number of videos, both in English and other languages, we have been studying volcanos and presenting our learning to the class. The students have enjoyed the experience so much that now there is a wide range of student led topics being researched during our JAD (Just Awesome Day) sessions. The children are planning to present their learning in a wide range of different ways, from using technology to create stop motion films, Kahoots or slide presentations to the more traditional paper methods of making their own books, posters and even plays.
· What I really enjoyed was the Te Reo lessons. I enjoyed them so much because... It’s fun, respects the Māori and learning a new language. I really enjoyed it. – Vanessa
· I love the native bird research. Because I got to learn new birds and new facts about them with new words. - Elina
· My favourite is the rugby practice, because it is keeping us healthy, and it is New Zealand’s traditional sport. - Wilson
· I liked the archaeologist visit from Chris Mallows. He told us lots of funny things about archaeology. - Aarav
Room 28:
Room 28 has been a dynamic hub of learning activities! Students have been engaged in a variety of collaborative and interactive learning experiences.
Collaboration through Ako Tuitui/ My Place and Belonging work
For the past two terms, children have been learning about themselves through our theme of ‘My Place and Belonging’. Through a variety of tasks and sources, we have been able to learn about special parts of our school and retell just how special Oteha Valley School really is.
Mrs Prangley’s visit:
In term two we interviewed Mrs Prangley. She is the Deputy Principal of Oteha Valley School. We asked her lots of questions, and she shared a lot of interesting facts.
A long time ago, when Albany was not built, there were no roundabouts and there were just thick bushes and trees all around. Over time, people decided to live in Albany because it had lots of space to live and many places to visit like the beautiful sandy beaches. When they started to build houses, the people thought the children in Albany needed a school. So, in 2004, Oteha Valley School was built. Oteha means ‘breathing life’ and our school motto is ‘Breathing life into learning’.
Isabelle 8 yrs.
The Young Days:
In Albany, there were no traffic lights, no roundabouts, nothing but thick bushes. Then time passed and people thought Albany was a good place to live. So, they started building houses and buildings. One of those buildings was our school, Oteha Valley School. It has been open since 2004.
Ailina 8 yrs.
It was so cool having Mrs. Prangley in our class. She was our expert on Oteha Valley School (OVS). I appreciated her sharing with us. It was so special. When she talked about OVS, I felt proud that I am learning here.
Talia 9yrs
Oteha Valley School (OVS) has special values that are important. This tells us how we learn at OVS. P.R.I.D.E were the first values and they stood for powerful learners, respect, innovators, decision makers and explorers.
Now the values are Aroha (compassion), Maià (brave) and Pākiki (curiosity). I like these new values, because they are also easy to act on and remember.
Room 29
In room 29 we have been using the fantastic new collaborative sports equipment.
The children were challenged to think of new ways to use the equipment and to make sure everyone in their team was included. The children rose to the challenge and created new games and different ways to use the sports equipment. The children were also learning to work cooperatively “we had to listen to each other...we discussed how to play... we laughed” Ryan. We enjoyed “making a new way to play a game” Emma and we were “kind to each other” Terry-Jun.
Throughout this term the children have been inspirited by Myths and Legends from around the world. Their favourites were Maui and the Sun and The Magic Paintbrush. The children were inspired by these and have written their own stories. We have also been working on editing and making their writing even better. Reading their stories has made me smile. They have used engaging language and their imaginations to create characters and worlds.
During JAD (Just Awesome Day) Room 29 have been creative through STEAM. The children have been looking at artists from around the world and created a traditional dot painting from Australia. “It was fun making the creatures out of dots” Emmalene
The children also got to think like scientists when we experimented with food colouring and Skittles. We set up experiments, observed the effects of water on the different colour dyes. Then thought about the results, why did one dye travel through the tissue quicker, why did other dyes mix? “The red and the blue skittles spread quicker because they were darker colours” Eden
Room 30
During Matariki Room 30 buddied up with Room 18, a year 6 class. We focused on the Matariki star Waitā, which represents the ocean and food gathered from the sea. We learned more information about specific sea animals and created poems, riddles and art based around what we learned. Sineli was very keen to work with her older brother Sandev and enjoyed working with him a lot. Jamie also said he really enjoyed getting to work with his year 6 buddy Lucas.
We have also been enjoying some creative STEAM based Just Awesome Day activities this term. We have built structures to carry a Ping-Pong ball at least 1 meter, been challenged to build the tallest tower we can out of only sticks and playdough, which Katie said was great, and worked to create a paper plane that will fly as far as possible.
Room 30 has also had a focus on enjoying writing more this term, so as well as learning about story structure when retelling myths from Māori culture and our own, we have been given lots of opportunities to write more freely and creatively which Blake has said he likes. Some of us are even choosing to write in our own time now!
Lots of us have been enjoying maths this term too. Aram has enjoyed working in Room 29, Jayden has enjoyed the speed times tables, Katie has enjoyed learning about rounding and compensating, while Carlos has just been enjoying maths in general.