Pasifika Language Week

What an amazing time we had last week celebrating Pasifika Language Week at Bromley School!

Charles kicked it all off for us by bringing in his tupenu that he wears to Church and on special occasions to share with us!  

On Tuesday, a group of Pītau 1 children made sapa suey (chop suey) which everyone enjoyed sampling!  There was even enough left over for some of our brothers and sisters to try too.

Faafetai lava to our very talented Mrs Tongiaso, who came in to teach us the Samoan alphabet.  Click on the link below to see how we did!

Learning the Samoan Alphabet with Mrs Tongiaso

Throughout the week, other children brought in some of their taonga that was special to their culture...

Mālō 'aupito to Tolini (Charles' mum) who popped in one morning to teach us how to say the days of the week correctly in Tongan as well as a couple of phrases!

Some of our Pasifika children were fortunate enough to go on a wee trip to Te Waka Unua School on Thursday to celebrate alongside some other schools from our area.  We were very proud of Sonny who put in a huge amount of passion when was chosen to help lead Mili!

Finally on Friday we ended the week with a Pasifika themed mufti day which was a lot of fun.  

Faafetai lava to Leonie (Leonie's Nanna) who came in to teach us lots of Samoan words, phrases, songs and even brought some ula fala for the teine as well as koko laisa for everyone to try!!

A huge Thank You to Mrs Tongiaso for all of her help, effort and resources that she shared with us!  Thank you for making this such a hugely successful and enjoyable week!

We are excited to continue on our journey to discover more about the Pacific languages and cultures as well as practising the new words and phrases that we have learnt on a regular basis.  

I am a leader of myself!

This week in Kiwi Can we have been thinking about Leadership...in particular how we can be leaders of ourselves.

We played a great warm up game that everyone enjoyed.  In small groups of 3 we counted to 3, and either held out our hands palm up or palm down.

The rules were simple.  If everyone's palms were facing the same way, each member of the group performed 3 star jumps and played the game again.

If 1 person's palm was facing the opposite way, they went to give Nicky a High 5 and then joined a different group to play again.

The second game we played was 'Pass the whisper' where the object of the game was to see if the correct phrase could be passed around the circle and back to the start again.

We were practising:

* Making sure everyone is included and supported to continue

* Encouraging others when they try hard

* Being a good role model

* Showing a good example to others

We are looking forward to using the same language within the classroom and celebrating those that show how they can be leaders of themselves!

Visiting Linwood Library

Due to the renovations happening at our school this year, we are unable to use our school library.  Luckily for us, we have an amazing library at Eastgate Mall just down the road which we are visiting once a month.

The staff at Linwood Library are always so friendly, helpful and polite.  They even come to help walk the tamariki to and from the library!

Last week was very exciting as many of us had filled out forms to receive our library cards which meant we were able to issue some books!

We spent lots of time exploring this week - checking out the different sections of the children's part of the library.  Some of us even got to grips with using the computers to search for texts that we were interested in.

Andrea (one of the Librarians) has asked if we would like to create a display in the library!

We are excited to put our heads together and come up with some ideas for what we might create to go on display at our local library!  

Group Roles and compliments

Following on from the thinking we have already done around compliments, Miss Gardner and Mrs Smith thought it would be a good idea if we worked in groups to write some compliments about our classmates.

In order to work co-operatively in groups, we were given role tags.  These included:

Group Leader

Time Keeper

Scribe

Encourager

Material Manager

We discussed in depth the meaning and what this might look like whilst we are working in a group.

Group Leader: Makes sure everyone is working hard, getting along in the group, and following classroom and project rules.

Time Keeper: Reminds the group of how much time is left in the projects and that there is no time to play.

Encourager: Group Cheerleader. Tells the group they can do it even if the group thinks the project is too hard.

Scribe: Writes everything down for the group. Records all data.

Materials Manager: Gets all materials. The only person allowed to leave the groups work area to get materials, returns extra materials, or throw away any trash. 

Pītau 1 then organised themselves into groups of 5 and we each took on a group role.

Using the photographs of tamariki from another group, we went off and began brainstorming 4 compliments that we could give each person in our class.

Where to next:

Who found their role easy/hard?  Why?

What worked/didn't work well?

How will we share the compliments we have written about each person?

Could we improve on them and make them more specific/personal?

Thinking about Compliments

After our discussion around emotions, we decided to get our thinking caps on around compliments.

So, what is a compliment?

Ieni - It's something nice you would say to others to make them happy.

Levi - You can say I like your clothes or your glasses.

Nevaeh - I like how you’ve done your hair today.

Brady - Their accessories they’re wearing.

Riley - Lipstick.

Yoyo - Nice things you can say about people’s bodies and that.

Aria - I like how you’re showing kindness to other people

Jemma - I like your house

Adham - I like how you swim.

Josiah - Compliments mean say sorry and say thank you.

How does it make you feel when someone gives you a compliment?

Jyuvana  - Feels like they’ve made your day.

Nehemiah - Amazing.

Kaiya - Makes your happy bucket filled up.

Sonny - Proud.

Leonie - Grateful.

Blake - Great.

Josiah - Excited and happy.

Jaydi - Grateful and surprised.

Nevaeh - Thoughtful (the person who gave the compliment).

Aria - Leaving a big smile on your face.

We spent some time practising giving others compliments...

What were some compliments that others gave you?

Rocky said he likes how I am kind to people - Adham

Manaia said she loves the way I show caring on the outside and inside. - Jaydi

Adham filled up my bucket by saying i like how you let people join in what you’re saying. - Rocky

Alex said he liked my shoes - Blake

Kaiya said to me and Ocie that she liked our hair - Nevaeh

We discovered that some of us found this task easy and others found it tricky...

I wonder why some people found it easy?

I had people that listened to me and I got ideas from other people. - Devyn

I just looked at them and found out what I should say to them. - Anarah

Compliments are just so nice, I just can’t stop saying them! - Jaydi

Why did some people find it tricky?

Yohannas - Cos like you can’t think of anything about them like what they’re good at and stuff.

Adham - I was so busy listening to them and lost my idea.

Riley - Maybe you’re tired.

Jem - You might not know much about them.

Next we had a game of compliments tag in the sunshine. In order to be freed when you have been tagged, a buddy has to come and give you a compliment. Once you have thanked and high-fived the compliment giver, you are back in the game!

Brain Power!!!

Last week we watched a short animated clip around emotions.  In the clip, Mojo felt anxious and embarrassed when he forgot what he was saying whilst presenting in front of the class.  His emotions beast took over and he didn't know what to do.

This got us talking...

"Do you think the beast is our emotions or our hearts?"  wondered Levi.

Most of the class agreed that it was our emotions:

"Cos when you’re angry it’s like a beast taking over you", suggested Jemma.

"When you’re angry your emotions go from nice to bad," explained Adham.

"When you get angry it’s like you’re turning into a beast that’s angry," added Jaydi.

Next we asked:

What are some powerful positive emotions that we feel sometimes?

Calm

Into it

Gentle

Happy

Peaceful

Shy

Chilled out

Proud

Extraordinary

Excited

Grateful

Confused

Helpful

Bromley School 5 C’s - Courageous, Connected, Creative, Caring, Curious

What are some powerful negative emotions that we feel sometimes?

Disappointed

Sad

Frustrated

Angry

Mad

Annoyed

Silly

Jealous

Furious

Cross

Emotional

Crazy

Upset

Serious

Irritated

Gloomy

What powerful emotions might you feel and how might you deal with them? we wondered.

Izzy - "If I'm irritated I tell someone or go to my room and squeeze or cuddle something".

Serena - "I move away from the situation when I’m mad."

Charles - "When I'm angry I do breathing or walk away."

Zoe - "When I'm angry I go to my room and punch my pillow."

Next we began designing our very own beasts! Look out for these being displayed in our classroom soon!

Back in the Garden!

So this week we popped back in to the garden to see what we had missed. We were amazed to see the way things had grown (weeds included!)

We noticed a lot of things were reading to be picked, so pick away we did!

We collected corn, broccoli, sliver beet, kale, courgettes and spied some pumpkins growing on the vine! 

The next morning we set to work cleaning and slicing up these beautiful vegetables to make a stir fry! 

The verdict? Delicious!!