Daffodil Day

Our awesome team in this syndicate have got on board with celebrating Daffodil Day in Lockdown (AGAIN!!)  

We dressed in yellow for our Syndicate Google Meet this morning. Many of us have created daffodils in some way to share and inspire others to get in behind this amazing cause. We have written      posts on our individual blogs. 

We have created a school online page to collect donations and we have taken selfies of us dressed up. 

 I will add the slideshow when others in the syndicate have contributed too. 

KEEP UP 

THE AMAZING 

EFFORT 

TE WAKA AKO

 

Our 'Special' Olympics

 Well at the start of Week 4 in Term 3, Covid-19 was just a story that was happening in the background of all our busyness with our learning and fun. Now, it is our story to deal with moment by moment and it is getting closer and closer to us and our families. So stay safe out there. Kia Kaha. 

 The Special Olympics Day we ran was a heap of fun, fun, fun, as many of the students will tell you in their own blogs. We decided on 9 kinda crazy games (from a resource put out by Study Ladder ) that the students would contest each other in. They were put into 18 groups of 4 students, by us the teachers, so a mix of boys, girls, age, class etc. Then they had to draw a country name out of a 'hat'. We had chosen 18 countries that we thought they wouldn't know much about. In their group they had to create a flag for the day and answer some information questions about the country on the back of their flag. All the countries had won just a few medals at the Tokyo Olympics so they needed to find out what they were and how many, as well.  Places like Georgia, Estonia, Kenya,  Uzbekistan, Ireland, Cuba, Malaysia, Jamaica, Bermuda, Ecuador, Iran, Morocco, Namibia, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Thailand, and Turkey. The countries also had to represent the 5 different continents that are represented by the Olympic Rings on the Olympic Flag.

The groups worked extremely well together and it was interesting and lovely to watch them build their team spirit on the day of preparation and the day of the event. The rotation we did meant every team played every other team in one of the sports. They were awarded points against the three Olympic Values of Excellence, Friendship and Respect. The three highest team scores collected the Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals. What was great was team work and attitude were important and so the winners were not necessarily those that had the 'sport minded' students in them, or those students encouraged their team enough that they all did well together. 

It was a great learning experience for us all. We were so busy we couldn't get as many photos as we would have liked but here are a few. 

Olympic Games Learning

Taumahekeheke - The Olympic Games

Excellence,  Friendship,  Respect - the three values of the Olympic Games. 

The Olympic Games have been a huge focus for our syndicate over the last 3 weeks and will continue for another couple as we eagerly await the Paralympics to start on the 24th August. 

                                   

In Reading we have been researching one of these Focusing Questions and creating DLO's (Digital Learning Object.) With the help of many different texts from different sources. Also the NZ Olympic Team website has been awesome.                              1. What makes up the important features of the Summer Olympic Games? 2. How have the Olympic Games changed from the Ancient Games to the Modern Games to the Present Day Games? 3. What is happening for NZ at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021? 

In Visual Language we looked at the logos used for all the different sports at the Olympics and matched them up.

Can you link them all? Have a go.....

 LINK

In Inquiry we have been researching one of the Olympic Sports and creating a ULO (Unplugged Learning Object). The students are creating dioramas or models of their chosen sport, then adding the information they have found to it in some one.

In Te Reo we have learnt the words for the many important elements of the games and have been learning sentences to tell others what sport we like or really like.

 LINK 

He tino pai ki au te hoe waka - I really like rowing. What did you like? The Taka Porepore? Or maybe Hoki?

In Maths we collaboratively looked at problems that had a sport or games focus. See how you go with some of these.

LINK

Finally our students were given groups and a less know country (by them) and they had to draw the flag and find some information about that country for the back of the flag. On Monday next week we will have a 'special olympics' with 9 different games and 18 teams. Points will be awarded for each group based on the 3 Olympic Values that are at the top of this post.

Watch out for the activities the students participate in on their blogs on Friday next week.