Green Hat Creativity

At Haumoana School we use a range of Thinking Tools to encourage us to think in more depth and detail.                  

De Bono’s 6 thinking hats are a great example of this:

We refer to them every day in one way or another.  They are up on the back wall so we can see them. 

We can use them to think about a topic we are working on for example Anzac Day where we can use our White Hat to look at the facts, our Red Hat to think of the feelings involved with seeing our family members going off to war, our Black hat to think of the disadvantages of war, and our Yellow Hat where we can enjoy stories like the Bantam and the Soldier, where we can see special relationships and bonds formed during  war time.

In Room 7 we use our Green Creative hat quite a bit.  Incorporating creativity and design into our busy curriculum can be often overlooked but, it is an equally important way for the children to express themselves. 

We were very impressed with Maggie’s wonderful Green Hat Creativity when she brought in her framed picture she had completed at her art class.

 Another great talent in the making.  Well done Maggie.

Buddy Classes

In the last week of the term Room 4 and 7 joined together as Buddy Classes to enjoy a sausage sizzle lunch.  It was an overcast day but that did not detract from the enjoyment the children had from a special lunch with a difference.  We sat with our buddies and chatted while we ate.  Then after that we had another treat.. a movie to watch.  It was a perfect end to a great term.

There is a lot of research that supports age mixed interactions.  Peter Gray an educationalist and a firm supporter of Play Based Learning says:

   ..that age-mixed play offers opportunities for learning and development not present in play among those close in age, permitting younger children to learn more from older playmates than they could from playing with only their peers. In age-mixed play, the more sophisticated behaviour of older children offers role models for younger children, who also typically receive more emotional support from older kids than from those near their own age. Age-mixed play also permits older children to learn by teaching and to practice nurturance and leadership; and they are often inspired by the imagination and creativity of their younger playmates.

We are still getting to know our buddies.  Our weekly buddy-reading sessions on Friday afternoons are a great way to regularly catch up, but we will be looking for more opportunities next term to ‘mix things up’ abit and have fun with our buddies. 

Thanks to those parents who not only donated the sausages, but also those that came to cook them. 

Here are afew pictures of everyone enjoying our end of term ‘get-together’.

Easter Discovery

Discovery happens each Friday morning with our Junior Syndicate.  That is Room 1, 7 and 8, our 5-7 year olds.  As you will be aware Play-Based Learning is something the Junior Syndicate are ‘inquiring ‘ into this year.  It is just as it says- learning through play.  Each class will be trying different things to encourage and measure whether play-based learning works in their classrooms.  Discovery is when we all get together and offer a range of different experiences for the children to have fun learning through.  There is no must-do’s but plenty of can-dos and will-do’s.  It is a great morning where you see creative minds in action.

Our last Discovery session for the term had an Easter theme.  There was the usual choice of different  activities both inside the classrooms and out.  Thankfully it was a dry day so we could make the most of the spaces available.  We had toast making and butterfly wings being created in Room 8 along with the usual playdough and painting.  In Room 7 there were Easter crafts of all descriptions.  The highlight being  Sam, Tilly's  teachers aide, coming along on her day off to create yummy Easter marshmallow treats with the children. That just shows the type of dedication she brings to her job, and the children just loved it. A small group of dedicated gardeners worked the entire time planting flower seedlings around the bases of all the trees.  Then there was the usual outside activities of water play and sporting gear.  Once again the talk around the water trough and the thought processes behind getting the water from the trough, through a thin plastic pipe where it made a lake which even had stock banks to stop the water escaping, was amazing and such fun to be a part of.

 This sort of experience lends itself to different combinations of children enjoying interacting, exploring  and playing together. I know it is the highlight of the week for alot of the children and we look forward to many more sessions of ‘Discovering’ throughout the year.

 We would love you to come a long and be part of the fun on any Friday morning.  If your creative juices are flowing bring some cool ideas for us to incorporate in to our sessions too. 

  But beware there is serious fun to be had ‘playing’.

Super Seven's Statistics

For the last 2 weeks we have been doing Statistics in maths.  We found out that statistics is about collecting and interpreting data and making it into a graph.  We began with a picto graph when we used statistics to find out about how we all came to school during our study on Road safety.

We wrote statements to show our understanding.  You can read all about it on our wall in the classroom.
After that we worked in groups and chose our own questions to inquire about. We asked our peers a choice of answers and used tally marks to collate the data.  We then made a bar graph to display our findings and shared them with the class.

         We have had so much fun with our statistics that it has even been happening at home.

On Saturday I went to my friend Pipi’s house.  Then my friend Ngaio came too and we went to the burger shop.  There was a bunny bouncy castle.  Then it was lunch time and we had fish and chips and burgers.  After that I went to my Grandmas house for a sleep over.  I drew a picture and I did statistics with her.  The options were flies, cupcakes, muffins, McDonalds and fish and chips.  I asked some of my toys and three of my bouncy frogs liked flies; the rest of them liked cup cakes.  Then it was bed time.  In the morning I had nutri- grain and I drew a picture.  It was time to go home and I had a water fight with my sister.  It was a fun weekend.

Rex