Our Place of Unity

Our part in the Festival of Education 

A recount by Room 17

Do you know what it feels like to be a movie star? Well, now we do!

On Tuesday the 25th of February Brad came to Sylvia Park School to film Room 17 singing the Festival of Education song  called A Place of Unity. 

Before Brad came to film us we practiced a lot which was good because we all knew the words and the tune by the time he came. First we were filmed standing outside Room 13, we had to stand as if we were a choir. It was really good and we were really loud. Brad was really impressed. Some students got to have close ups because they were using lots of expression when they were singing.
Next we changed locations and sung the song while running and dancing and pointing to our murals and our sculptures. We filmed by the Kai Tiaki sculpture in the garden, outside Room 20 and also on the senior climbing wall and playground.
Finally Brad took group photos of us beside the SPS graffiti wall. Some of the boys made a human pyramid and it was pretty awesome.

We felt like we were movie stars and we can't wait to see the final cut.

You can listen to the FESTIVAL OF EDUCATION SONG BY CLICKING HERE
(It is just the demo - hopefully we can show you our version soon)

Reading Rocks especially on FUN FRIDAY!

 CLAY FACES

The Crocodiles reading group read an article about a group of students making faces out of clay. Whaea Emma decided that we should have a go ourselves and it was awesome! We made salt dough from salt, flour and water and kneaded it for ages, then we cut it up into pieces all the same size and created our own clay faces using inspiration from the journal article. Here they are!

 

SHOWTIME ON FUN FRIDAY 

Every Friday at Reading time at least two of the reading groups will perform a play from the journal that they have been reading.

A director is chosen (it is someone different every week) and they allocate the parts and organise things like prop and stage direction. After lots of rehearsal time and a little bit of help from Whaea Emma it is SHOWTIME!

After we have performed to our audience we stay on the stage and they give us feedback, positive and constructive. 

 ROBOT CHALLENGE

The Tigers reading group read an article about students who created robots for different purposes. It was really interesting but not as interesting as what our follow up activity was! 

Whaea Emma pulled a huge bag of 'rubbish' out and we were given the task of making 'learning protector' robots. The robots that we created needed to have functions that helped to protect the learning in Room 17. 

After 40 minutes of discussion and construction we presented two learning protector robots to our class and explained their different functions including detector beacons and cork bullet shooters to protect our classroom from the learning bandits. 

It was an awesome fun friday activity!

Making a mark

Art with Whaea Dagmar is always incredible because the process she uses ensures creativity and success for ALL!

 We talked about our theme for the year 'Make your mark' and all the different meanings it could have then we looked at some Art by Reuben Paterson and Whaea Dagmar and how marks on paper can represent different things for different people.

Next we explored the different symbols/marks that represent us including our cultural backgrounds, our faith, our family, and the things we like and like to do.



We each filled a whole page full of marks while listening to music.

Our outcome is to create a mark that represents us just like the chiefs who signed the Treaty of Waitangi.

Finally we began our partnership hands piece which we are still working on filling with our different marks. Watch this space for our finished art!

What makes a strong partnership?

This afternoon Room 17 did some active research into what makes a strong partnership...

Whaea Emma got us to find a partner by working out without using words who was born in the same month as us. It was really hard! Next we went outside and Whaea Emma talked us through the obstacle course which we thought looked pretty easy - under tables, zig zagging through cushions and dodging water balloons on the ground. Simple, except there was one catch, one person in your partnership had to be blind folded and the other had to give instructions to get them through the course! 

We worked hard to figure out the best way to communicate the instructions which became more complicated as other students were trying to get through the obstacle course too. Some of us became very frustrated at the misunderstandings and ended up getting very confused, but some of us quickly figured out a way to do it fast for instance Ayen figured out that if she clapped in the direction that Malachi needed to walk this seemed to work.

 We did a lot of laughing and 

learning all at the same time. Here are some excerpts from our reflections.

Partnership means helping a person out - Angela
Having a partner is having a friend to help me - Teua
Being in a partnership is about working as a team and never giving up - Trent
Being a good partner means not getting angry and always being kind - David
Partnership means teamwork, honesty, helping each other and talking through the problems when they come up - Eneio
Partnership is working together, giving instructions and not getting angry - Sione
Partnership is working together, friendship and supporting each other - Charlize
Partnership is trusting each other, helping them and always playing with them - Emily
Partnership means you will always be happy because you will always be helped - Mitchy
Being my partner means you need to help me do something I don't know how to do - Mana
A partner is a good friend who needs your help too - Ayen
Partnership means I can trust him or her  and the can trust me too - Malachi
Partnership is about communication and helping - Aifala
You need to get along and relate to your partner- Monica
Partnership is team work and being fair - Tavake
Partnership is about being friendly and nice to each other - Liana
Really good friends are partners that you trust and they trust you - Justin
I can trust my partner - Danina
Partnership is teamwork, communicating, being a friend, trust, making sure I do the right things, they care, they are always there when I need them especially if I am alone - Adriana

Partnership is working together - Julius
Partners are friends and family who are about each other -Nidhi

The Treaty of Room 17

How the Treaty of Room 17 was written.

We started by sharing in small groups all the things that we didn't like about school. These turned out to be things like teasing, scabbing, pushing and others using our personal things without asking. It was a powerful experience to hear some of the students stories and it set the tone for the creation of our treaty. 

The purpose of our classroom treaty is to ensure that everyone feels safe, valued and is able to get on with learning in Room 17. 

The next thing we did was turn the negative experiences into positive guidelines which then formed our treaty. Here is it...

We, the below signed, agree to follow the rules of the treaty of Room 17.

1. We use No hands, No feet and No putdowns.
2. We share, but we ask first.
3. We speak and act with respect to protect each other's mana.

All of the students and Whaea Emma signed the Treaty of Room 17 in a short ceremony on Wednesday afternoon. We feel proud of our treaty and have it hung in a prominent place on our inquiry wall.