How can we encourage healthy living for ourselves and others?
By Rosie Hardie | Posted: Wednesday September 20, 2023
This term our PBL (Project Based Learning) has been all about exploring the health and PE curriculum. It has included a focus on a variety of sports, looking at a balanced diet, drinking more water, building a growth mindset, and brushing those teeth to name a few. All the life skills our tamariki need to thrive.
Juniors - The juniors have been enjoying exploring healthy living through play-based learning. The classes have been exposed to many health experts where students got the chance to generate thoughtful questions to help their understanding of what they need to stay healthy. There has been a lot of gameplay leading up to the Junior Games! This was a way for students to celebrate their learning by participating in a variety of games run by all the junior teachers. There were stations such as obstacle courses, bat and ball skills as well dance. The sun even came out to play!
Middles - The middle syndicate has 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.
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.
Seniors - The senior students have enjoyed taking part in the KAIK Cup this term. This focused on our milestone relating to cooperating, participating, and working as a team. It all started with our entry event where students were put into teams and had to come up with a chant for a team chant competition. Each Tuesday we then competed in a football tournament relating to the FIFA Women’s World Cup. It was amazing to see all the students get involved and encourage their team!
The senior students showed independence and creativity when creating their final products. Students were encouraged to think out of the box to encourage others to live a healthy lifestyle. The finished products included things such as creating dance videos to encourage exercise, making videos for the elderly to use in the rest homes, creating new games and PE units for other classes, and making meal plans for our families. It was great to see students giving and receiving feedback to make sure the final products were the best they could be.
All classes have been encouraging healthy living by taking part in the Young and Healthy Virtual Adventure sponsored by Zespri. It has been fantastic to see the excitement of students getting their steps up each day, a special shout-out goes out to the middles learning team who we see out running each day. All classes have been moving around the globe visiting famous landmarks by inputting their steps. Thank you to Zespri for creating an engaging challenge for our tamariki.
Next term we will be putting on our creative hats in preparation for a whole school art exhibition.
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