Hōpara - Explore Blog 2020

   Kia ora Hōpara Whānau  Firstly, thank you to all of the parents who attended Monday nights Sexuality evening, it was great to see so many of you getting a better understanding of how we teach "The Sexuality Road". This week the students in Hōpara shared their first Chill Clubs project. Nick and I were extremely impressed with what they produced. Throughout this change in CHILL we have noticed higher engagement due to the students choosing a project that they are passionate about. I know they are extremely excited about their next projects! Below are some snaps from our Chill Clubs presentation... Reminders/things to know:  Sexuality education start next week:  Below are the specifics of what we will be covering each week Week 7/8  Yr 5 (Ashley) - Introducing the question box, identifying group safety, Sexuality pre-assessment (what do we already know), identifying personal qualities to enhance self worth, describe the changes that happen in males and fem...

  Kia ora Hōpara Whānau  We have just reached the half way point of the term, gosh it has gone fast! We have had quite a bit of sickness in our class over the last fews, we thank those who have stayed home to reduce passing it on. This week we began our inquiry into bottle water, the students came up with a series of initial wonderings which they explored further. We also did a mixed ability maths investigation called "Waka widths" which connects directly with our focus of Algebra.  below are some snaps from our week.... Waka Widths  Waka Widths  Reminders/things to know:  Sexuality education information session for parents:  When: Monday 24 August at 5pm Where: School library Who: parents of students in Years 5-8 (not suitable for children) Calendar art : Firstly, Hōpara students have done an amazing job on their Calendar Art, we based this around a mental image they had of "Rushy bay" which was a significant location in our shared story "Why the Whal...

  Kia ora Hōpara Whānau  Week 4 has been a huge week for Hopara. With Mr B and Linda the core learning routine sailed on and with the sadly anti-climatic ski day/ winter sport tournament students found themselves with more time that expected. This lead to students pushing themselves to dive deeper with their learning.  We kicked off our Inquiry learning into different perspectives of bottled water. Some of the wonderings were finding out the water bottling process, why water is healthy for you, where bottled water comes from and if there is anything added to the water. It's great how fascinating water can be! We've also kept up our coding and pattern making for Algebra.  A photo of a scratch program made in class. Design to teach letter sounds too juniors. This week you should be able to see the Week 1 and 2 Learning Journal and the Delta Island maths task on Seesaw. Please take the time to have a look and drop a comment Week ahead is TBD but...

Kia ora Hōpara Whānau  WOW what a busy week in Hōpara! This week we welcomed Bradley to our learning space! Our core learning time in the morning is humming along and we are loving having the flexibility to take groups when key skills need to be explored that little bit further! This week we also did a mixed ability maths group investigation called "Delta Island" (see photos below of Hōpara students connecting and working together). Our CHILL CLUBS have been really successful and we can't wait to share their 5 week projects with you! Keeping that in mind we would like to invite you all on Wednesday the 19th August to celebrate our first round of CHILL CLUBS....more information around times to come! Week 4 Information: Next week Linda will be "Ashley" for the week, this is to allow her to do her AST role across our Kāhui Ako. All of Ashley's groups will still have their work uploaded like normal but Linda will take her groups. Delta island Delt...