Week 7 in Te Kinga...

This term we have been spending as much time outside as possible so we can have a bit of a break from wearing our masks - plus the weather has been so nice who really wants to be stuck inside anyway?! Here are some highlights from our Dodgeball sessions last week...

 Week 6 in Te Kinga...

Maths - Looking at Chance in Statistics...

Last week we learnt about the concept of chance in mathematics. We started out playing a simple 2 coin toss game and looked at the frequency of the possible outcomes - Heads Tails - Heads Heads - Tails Tails. We found that you had the most chance of tossing a Heads-Tails combination. We also looked at variables - would it make any results be affected by the way you tossed the coins or perhaps by the type of coins used? Then a challenge was set for each maths group to come up with a game of chance for the class to play...

The Year 8's created a game of Dice Doubles

The Year 7's recreated a game of 'Yahtzee'!

The Year 6's created a Triple Coin Toss game.

Technology with Mrs S...

Mrs S (our treasured teacher aide and garden expert) worked with Fletcher, Jackie and Krystal for Horticulture. They planted some lupin and mustard seeds in one of the vege plots. They will dig the crop before spring (and before they flower) to put nitrogen back in the soil. This will also help to cleanse the soil (Who knew soil needing cleaning?!). We use black polythene to cover weeds so we don't have to use herbicides in our garden. The children noticed that our pumpkins were getting bigger - yum yum we can't wait to make pumpkin soup! 

 Welcome to Te Kinga 2022!

Kia ora Koutou! 

We have already come to the midway point of Term 1 in Te Kinga and already we have been engaging in all sorts of learning and fun (even with our masks on!). 

We started the term with looking at Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Since we already knew a lot about the history surrounding the signing of the document and the reasons why it was signed, we instead looked at what the document means to us in our classrooms of Aotearoa in 2022. 

We looked at the guiding principles of Te Tiriti...Partnership, Participation and Protection and how that might look, sound and feel like in our school.

We explored the concept of 'Worldview' and found Thomas Brunner's Journal to be a great example of how different cultures have viewed the world over time, and not long after the signing of the treaty. We also looked at the incredible resilience that Brunner, Kehu and their companions demonstrated during their epic journey that started in 1848. Have you ever read this journal? 

We are in the process of creating a GIANT artwork to represent a view of Aotearoa from our perspective. Leo is in charge of sketching in the final details and the rest of us will add colour at his direction - we haven't finished it yet but it will be worth the wait! 

SWIMMING SWIMMING AND MORE SWIMMING!

Since week 2 of the term, through rain and shine, Te Kinga have been swimming from Wednesday to Friday at the lake. HOWEVER this swimming is not just to have fun and to cool down in the last of the Summer days ... we have also been learning HOW TO SURVIVE IN WATER and HOW TO SAVE OTHERS should we need to. 

We have learnt to float, tread water, do the 'bend, star and snap' survival stroke and use a float to rescue others. Here are some photos...

Community Time and Tech at school...

Every second Monday, instead of going on the bush walk, Te Kinga students have been working hard around our school for 'Community Time'. They decided to work in groups - doing things like the garden, baking for the whole school, clearing the stones on the court (which miraculously appear after the weekends), clearing rubbish, looking after our library and making our school look beautiful. 

Because there can't be Tech at Grey High this term, we are now having Tech days at school. This term we will look at cooking and kitchen skills, hard materials and horticulture, plus using  creative digital tools on our chrome books. In a separate project, Solomon, Blake, Michael and Flynn are adding the final touches and eventually managing the new woodwork shed in the playground.

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Ko wai au?

This week we have made an interesting wall display which introduces everyone in Te Kinga. Some of us have large families, some of us have small ones. The things we like and don't like are all quite different. But what is very clear is that the students in Te Kinga are all interesting and talented individuals! Watch out for the a digital version of our posters in the future...

           And finally...

This week we have been looking at how we can build our resilience or working through and overcoming challenges and set backs that our lives will always present us with. In this activity we thought of something that really bothered us and then came up with 3 ways that our problem or situation could be worse. Take a look at Krystal's 'It Could be Worse' work...