Kia Kaha - Constable Lorena's first visit

Today we had our first session with Constable Lorena.  We began the session talking about what effects bullying can have on us and who we can talk to if we think we're being bullied.  We knew we could talk to our parents, our teachers, and our friends that we trust.

It was important to reinforce the learning we had done over our Personal Shields.  When we created our shields we looked at what made us special and unique.  It's important to remember these qualities that make us who we are when we feel like people are hurting us.

We talked about how we need to show respect to everyone, even if they're not necessarily our friends. It's important to always treat people the way we want to be treated.  We need to be accepting of all people and appreciate our differences.  We tries to imagine a world where everyone is exactly the same and we decided that that would be a very boring place.

We talked about the type of people who tend to be bullies and what type of person might get bullied.

We looked into the body language of a confident person.  What differences do we notice when we see a shy person and a confident person walking around.  And how we can help each be more confident.

It's also really important to look at everyone's point of view.  There are many roles in a bullying situation including the bully, the person being bullied and the by-standers.  In small groups we discussed what options can these people do to make the situation better?  The scenario we looked at generated an excellent discussion. See the photo below of our great ideas.

Kia Kaha - Our Waka

As part of our Inquiry Learning, we have been taking part in the Kia Kaha Programme.

We have been discussing how we can make our classroom and safe and happy place for us to all learn in.  We thought about how if we stand strong for what we believe in and respect others and their views, then our mana will increase.  Our classroom will also be a nicer, more pleasant place.

We then talked about how everyone in the class has strengths and qualities and how we can all pull together to make the class strong and happy.  We brainstormed what these qualities are and came up with some great ideas:
helpfulness, willingness, being an active listener, supporting and encouraging others, sharing our skills and talents, being organised, showing respect and having trustworthiness and so, so much more!

We got into small groups and made a waka to represent our class as we are all on this learning journey together. All the people in the waka pull together to make the waka go smoothly.  The words we brainstormed above are written on the paddles.

Soon these will be up on display in our classroom if you have time to pop down and take a look. Check out the photos below of us designing our wakas together.

This Friday we have our first of three sessions with Constable Lorena, which is very exciting.  She will be running a special programme for us with a special focus on bullying.

Senior Assembly Certificates - Week 6

Senior Assembly Certificate Winners Week 5

This week's Senior Assembly was a special one for Room 21 as we were the Hosts!

What an amazing effort you all put in Room 21!  I was extremely proud of how hard you worked all week and when it was showtime, all that hard work sure paid off!

Everyone performed perfectly during the class musical item. 
Our presenters were confident and clear when introducing items.
Our actors and actresses in our role plays were fabulous!

Everyone played their part and made it a fantastic first Senior Assembly for 2016.


Congratulations to the following children for winning the class certificates.

Cindy, for your passion and energy that you put into learning.  You are a real gem in our classroom.

Victoria, for the effort you always put into your learning and for always doing your very best in everything that you do.

Looks like ice-cream all round for you guys tonight!

Breakers Coaching Session #3

This week's class session started with a re-cap on our previous session - goal setting.  Next we looked at nutrition and what makes up a healthy diet.  We talked about the causes of obesity and were challenged to find out which countries have the highest obesity rates.  We were shocked to hear that New Zealand has a large obesity rate.  We looked at how we can educate ourselves and our families to make better choices when it comes to what we eat.

We also carried on the focus on Team Work in our practical session from last week today.  We played Line Basketball and tried to put our newly developed skills into a game.  It was amazing to see the difference in the game when we started thinking as a 'team'.

Breakers Coaching Session #2

This week's classroom focus was on Goal Setting.  We identified areas that we wanted to make improvements in, and perhaps, most importantly, what obstacles might be in our way.  By identifying the obstacles, we could start to think about what we could do to overcome them.

Our practical session focused on Teamwork.  It was great to see the children start thinking about how they can work together to achieve the same goal.  We played a fun game where we had to work in teams of 4-5 to tag out as many players as we could.  Once we worked out the strategy of how to work as a team we were able to tag out many more players.

No doubt we can apply this learning to many aspects of our lives - at home and at school.

Check out the pictures below of us enjoying another fantastic Breakers session.