THE NATURAL CURIOSITY OF CHILDREN = SCIENTISTS

Children have the capacity to demonstrate heightened curiosity and genuine interest in the world around them. They naturally show the propensity to explore, investigate and discover; they are in essence, scientists.

The way Matahui students connect to the environment may not necessarily be unique, but it is significant. They enjoy going outside and the school playground becomes a microcosm of scientific opportunities – a living laboratory. When I shared Saxon Russell’s story (which KVH weaved into the report below) with the students in each class and informed them that the beetle he had discovered at school might be a horticultural “nasty,” they headed out on an intense search.

Prior to leaving school a six year old student at Matahui School in Katikati found a stink bug nymph, had his mother take a photo and proudly showed the critter off to his Dad. Being the small world that it is, Dad’s work sometimes relates to the kiwifruit industry and he had been contacted in the past by KVH about the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB) so knew to make a report.

Formal identification by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) found that the bug was a native Australian Green Shield Bug.

 This is a fantastic example of the great awareness of our environment, and all the living things in it (of which biosecurity is such an important element), being built up from the ground level by teachers and principals day-to-day in, and outside of the classroom. Raising public awareness is what we are all about, and our goal is for the whole country to form a team of 4.7 million biosecurity conscious New Zealanders by 2025. (Kiwifruit Vine Health 2018).

“Saxon the Scientist” and his scientific Matahui buddies hardly left a leaf unturned such was the excitement of the challenge to locate and carefully capture the beetle he had seen. Our Matahui scientists recognized the importance of the task ahead and became part of an authentic scientific process, one designed to carefully monitor our environment. They have certainly become biosecurity conscious watchdogs.

We must continue to nurture the innate curiosity of the children we teach and give them authentic ways to demonstrate scientific thinking and methodology, especially in relation to the environment. They will learn that their actions can have an immense impact on the way we care for and sustain the planet on which we live.

 

Kowhai class shared their learning at assembly

The value of the week was courage and we shared times in our lives when we have shown courage:

Darcy: I showed courage when I first started school.  I felt a bit shy.

Blair: I showed courage to make good choices with my brother.

Aby: I showed courage when the dentist pulled my tooth out.

Sam: At the beginning I felt really scared to go into the native bush.  It looked like a big black hole.  But the I did it.  I liked it and I felt really proud of myself.

Lily: Dad wanted me to go on the chairlift at Cadrona.  I felt really scared because it looked so high.  But I did it and I had a really great time.

Aroha: I always show courage to tell the truth.

Kaida: I showed courage on my first assembly when I had to talk.

Gabe: I showed courage when Niki and I went on a bush walk with my Dad.  It was really dark in there.

Olive: I went on a moving chairlift in Rotorua.  I was really scared to hop on while it was moving.  Someone helped me and I did it and it was fun at the top.

Saxon: I showed courage when I went to see the ducklings.

Niki: I showed courage to go into the alpaca’s cage at Gabe’s.

Cameron: I showed courage when it was my first time trying a new food – spanakopita –

and I did it and it was really yummy.  I also showed courage when I had my blood test.

 

Our inquiry this term is the question ‘How can we express ourselves through the arts?’

We made a series of self portraits showing our different emotions.  Can you guess how we are feeling?

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We sang and played  “Blue is the Sea’. The sea has many moods which we tried to express in this song.

 

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We had so much fun at Boat Day so we made paintings of the day.  We tried to paint like the impressionist Claude Monet.  He thought about light and dark and reflection.  His paintings often looked better when we stood back from them because he used little brush strokes.  We also wrote cinquain poems.  This is where you count the syllables in each line and the pattern is 2, 4, 6, 8, 2.

 

 

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Boat Day

Black shiny tube

Bouncing on the water

I feel excited in my tube

Awesome!  

By Blair

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Boat Day

Small blue kayak

Riding the little wave

Happy and strong and really proud

Best day!

By Sam

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 Fun tubes

Black round circle

Spinning in the water

Fantastic fun in my fun tube

Big splash!

By Saxon

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Big Boat

Yellow fast kayak

Paddling on the calm sea

Taking control of my yellow kayak

Waahooo!

By Aby

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My boat

Small optimist

Sailing, turning in the breeze

I am the captain of my boat

Ahoy!

By Olive

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Kayaks

Big fun kayak

Adventure on the sea

Nervous, excited, happy, proud

Magic!

By Lily

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Boat Day

Fast red kayak

Paddling from side to side

So much fun circling and turning

Fun day!

By Kaida

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Boat day

My boat is red

Floating, slicing through the sea

Having fun in my red kayak

Happy!

By Cameron

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Fishing

Silver scales

Swimming in the water

I caught a fish on my fishing line

The best!

By Darcy

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Boat Day

On the jetty

Fishing with my Daddy

First time fishing, my favourite

Love it!

By Aroha

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Yellow Yacht

Sails flapping

Swishing, turning, blasting

I feel so great in the salty breeze

Fantastic!

By Nikora

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Blue Boat

Fast kayak, bright blue

Floating, paddling, speeding

Happy, smiling in the kayak

Boat day

By Gabe

We had lots of fun experimenting with the rhythms in ‘Cockroach Sandwich in my lunch’.

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What a great term of learning we’ve had!

 

 

Bike Safety with Room One, Matahui School.

Room One enjoyed a week with Constable Ros Frost learning about bike safety and road safety.  We rode our bikes…..

.P1100155 ….on the court

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P1100123P1100126…around the cones.P1100161We stopped at the Stop sign.P1100146P1100149 We rode our bikes on the grass.

P1100168…on the driveway.

P1100103P1100177P1100150We took off our trainer wheels!P1100118P1100176We checked for any traffic that may be coming.

P1100178 And on the last day we all enjoyed riding down Lancaster Road with Constable Ros!  Here we are practising our stop signals.

Room One explores colour

Red day

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Gianni
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James
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Bryleigh

 

It is red day….

 Everybody looks red. I am Spider Man and I am red and powerful!  By James

Everyone is wearing red.  Red makes me feel strong!  By Nikora

I am wearing a red hat and a red skirt and a red jacket and red boots.  Red makes me feel happy.  By Millie-Anne

                                    Blue Day

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Keyarn
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Matilda
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Asha

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It is blue day…

I am hungry for blueberries.  Everyone is blue.  Blue makes me feel happy because it makes me feel like swimming with fish.  By Keyarn

Blue makes me feel cold.  It makes me feel happy. Blue is the sea.  Blue is the sky.  Blue is my favourite colour. I am wearing a blue T shirt.  It looks like everyone is wearing blue.  By Gianni

Blue is one of my favourite colours.  I am wearing a blue jacket, dress, leggings and hat.  I feel happy because I like blue.  By Bryleigh

                                          Yellow Day

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Today is Yellow Day…..

Yellow makes me feel snuglish and warm.  By Thomas

Yellow looks fantastic!  Everyone is wearing yellow.  Everyone looks like the sun.  I am wearing a yellow T shirt with coloured pineapples. Yellow makes me think of summer because it is a hot colour.  By Asha

Everyone is wearing yellow.  Yellow is my favourite colour.  I feel happy.  By Abygale

Yellow makes me feel bright because  daffodils are yellow.  I’m wearing yellow and everyone is wearing yellow too.  I think I look cool in yellow.  Yellow bananas and yellow lemons and pineapples are yummy and tasty.  Yellow makes me feel important because it’s a bright colour.  By Matilda.

 

 

 

 

Squiggle Squirm Matahui Tiger Worms – Room One

P1070099   “Here’s all the food scraps we have collected” says James.. P1070117 P1070118“Yum! yum!” say the tiger worms to Millie Anne and Asha.  

P1070128“I can’t believe the tiger worms are going to eat this shredded paper!” says Gianni. P1070130“And a little sprinkle of lime” says James.

P1070108P1070115 “I spy with my little eye” says Bryleigh. Denley and Keyarn.  “I can see heaps and heaps and heaps of tiger worms that can’t stop eating! The are too busy!” says Keyarn.  “They’ve got stripes” says Denley.  “They look like TIGERS!” says Bryleigh.

P1070113P1070107 “Hey, I don’t believe the tiger worms have any eyes” says Max.  “There’s lots of worms ” says Troy.  “The worms like it when its dark so they are going under the soil” says Matilda.

P1070116 “I wouldn’t eat that avocado!” says Macy to Denley.   P1070135 “This worms juice is really strong” says Keyarn. “Better add some water to it” says Max

.P1070133There is lots of worm juice. These worms have been busy!” says Gianni.

P1070142 “Our cherry tree is going to love this” says Matilda. P1070146“This plant needs just a little bit more worm juice Keyarn” says Max.

P1000321 “The plants in the hanging basket will grow really well with all this worm poo!  It’s going to look so pretty!” says Asha to Gianni.

Digital Learning

Matahui is proud to lead the way with our Digital Citizenship partnership with leading internet security company Symantec. Please see the details below.

Background Information for Pilot Schools
Prepared by CYBER SAFE KIDS
The opportunity for Symantec to partner with Cyber Safe Kids in the localised alignment of Common
Sense Media curriculum to the Australian, New Zealand and International Baccalaureate Primary Years
Programme is unique.
Robyn Treyvaud, founder of Cyber Safe Kids and her colleague Andrea Muller have been liaising with
Common Sense Media for the past 5 years and together with colleagues from the UK Safer Internet
Centre and South West Grid for Learning have become accredited trainers who have the necessary
permissions to work with and localise the alignments to the national curriculums of Australia, New
Zealand and the IB Primary Years Programme.
This would be the first use of the Common Sense Media resources to be developed with a local ‘flavour’
and provides a unique platform for global collaboration in support of digital citizenship.
Significantly, Symantec will be funding an alignment to the Australian and New Zealand curricula of
digital citizenship concepts developed by Common Sense Media:

Internet Safety Privacy & Security Relationships &
Communication
Cyberbullying
Digital Footprint &
Reputation
Self-image and
Identity
Information Literacy Creative Credit &
Copyright

Today, a safer Internet is one that is underpinned by the values of citizenship. This moves towards the
idea of ‘digital citizenship’ which reflects our growing understanding that online safety is more than just
the use of security software and passwords, but encompasses the actual ethics of being online and respect
for others. Ideally, digital citizens think critically, behave safely and participate responsibly.