Junior News

By Felicia Ward | Posted: Saturday May 22, 2021

Term Two has certainly kicked off with the Junior Syndicate busy designing and creating their wakas and learning all about the story of the Pacific Migration to Aotearoa. We are excited to share our creations and new learning with you all at our Museum Showcase next week. The children have learnt some essential problem-solving, collaboration, and critical thinking skills as they have made their fantastic waka.

Some highlights so far this term have been our visit from Tahu from Orokonui Ecosanctuary to teach us all about bird migration. Tahu answered many of our burning questions and engaged us all with her games and dress-ups. 

Another highlight was our trip to the Otago Museum to learn more about early explorers and to see some real waka. We left feeling inspired and excited to create our own waka. A big thank you to all our wonderful helpers who came along and to Ms Downie for organising this trip. 

We have made the most of our beautiful autumn weather by getting outside for sport. As the grounds become muddier, we do ask that children bring a spare change of clothes to school. 

For the first two weeks of the term, we were lucky to have second-year College of Education students Mr Jolly (R7), Miss Grace (R9), Miss Dungey (R10) and Mr Arbuckle (R10). We thank them for the dedication and enthusiasm they brought to the classroom and wish them well in their future studies. From next week we welcome back our third-year student teachers Miss Cox (R7) and Miss Bradfield (R9). 

We look forward to seeing you all at our PBL Museum Showcase next week. 

Many thanks

Junior Teachers

Classroom News: 

Room 7: 

In Room 7 we have been super busy getting our exhibition ready for our school museum. We can't wait for you to see it! In preparation, we have been lucky enough to visit two museums - Otago Museum and Te Papa (virtually). We are looking forward to our third-year student Miss Cox joining us for the next three weeks.

Room 9: 

Room 9 have had a busy few weeks being waka builders. We have been exploring different types of boats with corks, sticks, tin foil and cardboard. We have enjoyed learning how to do stop motion with our buddy class and have created some cool videos using our wakas as a way of showing the Pacific Migration story. We have loved having Mr Reid teaching us while Miss Ward is away. 

Room 10: 

Over the last two weeks, Room 10 has had the pleasure of having two student teachers in our room. We really enjoyed the time that Miss Dungey spent taking us for poetry and visual art, centered around the topic of “Autumn.” Mr Arbuckle read us the Maori legend, “The Battle of the Mountains” by Peter Gossage. Then we did some great visual art, creating mountains and a mixed-medium background. It was lots of fun! For PBL, we have been designing our own double-hulled waka and have created them out of bamboo, flax, sticks, and pipe cleaners. We have also enjoyed making double-hulled waka models out of cardboard. We look forward to showing you what we have made at the Kaikorai Museum on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. To end our “Voyagers” topic, we are going to create waka using all of our recycled junk from home. We are excited to see what we come up with!

Room 12: 

Term Two has kicked off with a hiss and a roar in Room 12 with some enthusiastic new members starting in our class. We have been pretty lucky with the weather so far and have been able to get outside most days for P.E with Game Sense activities as our focus. Back inside the classroom, the children have been busy with hands-on projects relating to our Voyages unit. We have been Designers, Builders, Story Tellers and Artists. We had a successful trip to the Museum where we were able to hear more about early explorers and see Waka. This helped when it came to designing our own Waka and telling our stories. We look forward to sharing some of our work with you next week.

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