The Raincoat Challenge

Team Building

In the beginning of Term 1, the learning coaches decided to give the learners a team building challenge.   In groups of 5-6, they had to design and make a raincoat out of 10 plastic bags and some tape.    The raincoat had to be made strong enough to withstand a running test, and also water-tight so that the model would remain dry during the 'rain' test.  

It was a lot of fun and many of the learners enjoyed getting to know each other during the process of making the raincoat.  Unfortunately for many, their design skills were not the best and as a result, many of the models got very wet.   

Perhaps we could have this same design challenge at the end of the year.   I wonder whether their designing and making skills will have improved - what do you think?

Curious Playing

Our #Oresome Playground

Monday 28th August was a great day.   In fact, it was an #Oresome day because the long wait for our playground finally ended.  The fences came down and the play began.    

Through out terms 1, 2 and 3, we have been watching the work in progress - from the concept plan...

Then the construction...

And finally, it was completed!

This week, we are celebrating Curious Playing.   Sonny, Ahaana, Manveer and Brian H have produced a movie that demonstrates some areas of 'Curious Play' occurring in our playground and multispace.   They look forward to receiving your feedback.

What inspires the Learners from LH6?

We sure have done a lot of learning this term! But before the holidays start, the learners were think back to recall something that has truly inspired them up to now...

Have a read of LH6's collaborative inspirational poem to find out what has had the greatest impact on our wonderful, curious learners. Click on this link to look at every line of our poem.

Preparation for Learner Led Conferences

Over the next 2 days, the learners will be taking part in a very important meeting - the Learner Led Conferences! During these conferences, the learners will be bringing their parents to a meeting with their Whanau Learning Coach. Using their Learning Pathways as a visual prompt, the learners are going to share some of the learning they have taken part in during iDevelop, iExperience and iExplore.

If the Learning Coaches are honest, it has been a little challenging to get the learners to take responsibility for getting their Learning Pathways ready. However, over the last few weeks, several learners have managed their time more effectively and have created some sensational reflections about their work during Term 1 and Term 2. We can't wait to take part in the conferences and hear what they have to say!

The last step was preparing the learners for the actual meeting. The Learning Coaches modelled how the learners are expected to introduce their parents to the Learning Coach, and vice versa, and what it should look like when the learners are discussing the work on their pathway. Below, you can see the learners were asked to practise how the LLC should go amoung their Kagan groups. One learner shared their work and the other 3 learners acted as Learner Coaches to feedback on what went well and how their meeting could be even better if.

We look forward to seeing all the learners and their wonderful parents in the Learner Led Conferences. Let's see how passionately the learners share their work at OrmPS!

Challenging Chess Competition!

On Friday 30 June, these five superstars bravely entered the Auckland Girls Chess Tournament. With Miss Love, they left at 8:00am in the morning to arrive at Mount Albert War Memorial Hall for 9:00am. Once there, it was clear that the competition was very popular indeed! Below you can see just how many girls from a variety of Auckland schools loved chess and wanted to prove their chess capabilities...

Every girl took part in 6 rounds in the tournament. If you ask then, our lovely learners will definitely tell you that every single competitor was definitely very confident at chess, so it meant that our girls found their games quite challenging indeed! However, all the girls respected their partners, introduced themselves politely and displayed great sportsmanship throughout the day. We had a lot of fun and most girls won between 1 - 3 of their games! 

Another chess tournament will be coming up soon... we wonder who will represent OrmPS in that one?

Exceptional iExplore Presentations

It's that time of the term again!

The majority of our inquisitive learners have completed their iExplore presentations and are presenting to the whole Habitat, or small groups.  In term 1, the learners truly impressed us with their outstanding abilities to share their new knowledge, so the Learning Coaches weren't prepared for the fact that this term they'd be even better!

There were some star presentations this term that covered a whole range of intriguing topics. The whole Habitat learned all about the Titanic tragedy, a type of airplane, how to play the keyboard, a famous pop artist, how running affects our bodies... and the list goes on!

When sharing their new learning about Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, Samar and Sahar especially impressed their small group. All learners were incredibly engaged and all enjoyed learning about a different city around the world. During the reflection of 'what went well' (www) and how the presentation could have been 'even better if' (ebi), the LH6 learners asked to share the features of the girls' presentation that made it so successful. Hopefully they'll be able to use these top tips for their next presentations...

Scholastic Book Fair

A Visit to the Book Fair

We love books, and we love the Scholastic Book Fair!

It has been very exciting to see the transformation of our library space in OJC be transferred into a Scholastic book shop.   Today, some of the learners paid a visit to view the books on sale and write some of our favourite titles on a wish list.   

We can't wait to come back tomorrow when the 'shop' opens.