Interviewing for the Ultranet page

On Friday, we decided that we needed to try another way to gather people's stories to put onto our Ultranet page, "Don't be Scared, Say it Out Loud!" We were really wanting to get some stories from some younger children, and we knew that writing probably wasn't going to be the best way to get them.

We decided to go and interview some of the Year 1 and 2 children. We thought of some good leading questions that we could ask to start a conversation off with, and then we knew that we had to listen carefully to the stories that came out, so we could ask some questions that followed on from what the children said.

Here is a recording of part of one of the stories.



To help us, we used Voice Memo or Photo Booth to record the stories so we could go back and listen to the stories later and type them up for the Ultranet page. We were really hoping that we would get some stories that weren't about Earthquakes, but we knew we had to go with what the children wanted to talk about. Over the next few days we will be typing up the rest of the stories and putting them on the Ultranet page, so don't forget to go and visit!

The Official Invitation

Wow! This is really exciting! All the work that we have done is coming to the presentation stage. We are all set and ready for the community to come in and see us showcase all the great things we have learnt. We have all gone home and talked to our parents about what we have been doing, but now you get to come in and really see what it has all been about!

We have sent out invitations to people at all of the facilities that we have worked with, and to the experts who have helped us with ideas. We have learnt that there is a difference between a physical address and a postal address!!

We look forward to seeing you all on September 18th and 19th. 

                                                                                                - Ella H, Genevieve, Harriet L

Countdown to Exhibition!

WEBSITE COUNTDOWN WIDGET

Viewing the Year 8 Personal Projects

Today we were very fortunate to be able to visit the Year 8 Personal Projects that were on display in the Cybrary. Our Year 8s have been working on these individual projects for the whole year, and it was perfect timing for us as we are starting to think about how we will share our Exhibition learning.

We went up to the presentations with a 'critical eye' - looking for the presentations that were bright, colourful, interactive and educational. As we went around the displays we were taking notice of fonts, formats, boards, backing paper, headings, names, tables, colours, use of technology - there is so much to think about!!!

We noticed how well the Year 8s were able to talk about their projects - what they had done, what they had learnt, the successes and the failures - and we were impressed at how confident they were when they were speaking.

"Make sure you space out the information on your board - if it is too crowded, you can't see everything." - Lily and Enya

"If your slideshow is too long, you could lose people's attention." - Rosa

"I love how some of the girls made their display relate to the topic - like when Mya used a frame to display her project about framing." - Georgina

"Fancy writing doesn't always work - sometimes it is too hard to read." - Caroline

"Having something for the audience to interact with was good!" - Kathleen

Thank you Year 8s for sharing your Personal Projects with us - we really appreciate it! We have lots to talk about in our Exhibition groups as we head towards September 18th!!

Card Making Stall

Today we raised an army! Our aim was to send cards to the Child Cancer Foundation to help cheer up the children who were ill in hospital. They didn't give us any guidelines but we knew that the cards needed to be good quality, they needed to be carefully done and they needed to be bright and cheerful. We had a lot more people than we had expected. We thought we had around 90 children which was most of the school! We felt a little flustered at first but everything went smoothly because we had a runsheet, we were organised and most of all it was a fun activity. Thank you so much everybody that participated!

Card Making - slideshow

Collecting food for City Mission

Over the last week following our trip to City Mission, we were left with the task of getting some food from donations. Each class had a bag and after a week we had fifteen bags. Thank you so much to every-one that donated! Last week, on Wednesday, we went back to City Mission to drop off the bags. We went back to the basement where all the food was stored. Mary was there with a volunteer. She was so thankful for all our donations. It had made a huge difference because at the moment their supplies are low due to the increasing amount of families that are struggling to get by. While we were there we helped sort through the bags. We organised the food into categories so that its easier to sort them into bags to hand out to the families that come in. It was a lot of fun and we worked for about 30minutes to sort the food we had brought in.

The day before we were really busy as well, we had collected a whole lot of clothes for the family that needed clothing and toys for her children. We had about ten bags. The lady at the church was thrilled. It made such a big difference for these families. She was also impressed with the way we spoke to her on the phone, we were always prepared for each phone call with times, dates and all the questions we thought they would ask.

We feel so lucky, there are so many people out there less fortunate than us and its important to be grateful for what you have.

Dogwatch, working hard in the weekend!

When we went into Dog Watch we found out that they run on donations so we decided to bake some treats for them. We researched some recipes on Google and found one that looked easy. The dogs were all on special diets so we had to pick one that was simple and basic. 

Here is the recipe...

Basic Dog Biscuits

Ingredients

• 2 ½ cups whole wheat flour (substitute regular flour or oats if your dog is sensitive to wheat)
• 1 tsp. salt (or less)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. Beef or chicken Bouillon granules (can substitute beef or chicken broth/stock)
• ½ cup hot water

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Dissolve bouillon in hot water
3. Add remaining ingredients
4. Knead dough until it forms a ball (approximately 3 minutes)
5. Roll dough until ½ inch thick
6. Cut into slices or bone shapes (you can purchase a bone shaped cookie cutter to make shapes with)
7. Place dough pieces on lightly greased cookie sheet
8. Cook for 30 minutes

When we made these we had to convert a lot of the measurements! We shared out the ingredients and were each responsible for some. We made them at school.

On Saturday we went back to Dog Watch. We decided to go in while the biscuits were still fresh. We also used this time to make a video and take some photos of the Dog of the Week. We are going to hand the posters out in mailboxes to encourage people to adopt a dog. We are going to post the movie up or our Blog- so stay tuned!! 

We learnt we had to be organised, our team was relying on us! Amelia was so impressed that we gave up some of our own time, this really showed our commitment. We are now in the process of editing our movies and working out how best to present these beautiful dogs. Our next steps are to advertise these dogs and try to help make a difference to Dog Watch. 

Mini Olympics at Ferndale

On Wednesday the 4th of September we went to Ferndale school to run a Mini Sports day for the Juniors. We had to organise and plan a lot of events, in case some of our ideas were too hard. As we started playing we realised we often had to simplify our original ideas or make them harder.

One of the first things that happened as we got out the car was quite funny. A little girl ran over to us and said "Thank you so much for the presents!" We had to explain that we were here to teach them some sports games.

The children LOVED the moon hoppers so this meant we had to be flexible. One of the children had seizures so this meant he often got confused, or missed out on information. We had to make sure we kept repeating ourselves and made our instructions. Sometimes the children didn't like the games we had organised so this meant we had to change the activities frequently. As the children got better we had to make the activities harder and introduce new skills. We also had a range of activities so they could come and grab gear if they wanted to opt out of a game.

Overall the day was a huge success, they really enjoyed our sports games and they liked meeting new people. The school loved having us there as well because their usual gym teacher had been away. We are going to try to find ways of keeping in contact with these schools.


Mini Olympics at Ferndale on PhotoPeach

Don't be Scared, Say it Out Loud!

As a group we have been sending out emails to the students of Selwyn House school asking for stories. We decided to take a different approach, rather than earthquake stories, we want to do more about whats happening now. We are interested in the after affects, for example those who could not get insurance, or those who had to move homes. These issues affect a lot of New Zealanders and we are interested in having stories of hope to cheer others up.

We have been searching for quotes to help inspire. Here are a few...

Some brave girls have shared their stories...

Bath-time

When we had the ducklings here we learnt a lot of skills. The ducklings had no mother so we had to make sure they didn't get too wet. The ducklings stay waterproof by rubbing themselves on their mother. Since these ducklings had no mum they weren't waterproof. So when we washed them, it was a quick dip. In, out, dry and warm up! 

They also weren't used to human contact so we had to move "Mother Duck" (the big one) first so the others didn't panic.

Second Trip to Travis Wetlands

Travis Wetlands - slideshows

We emailed John Stilton to tell him how much we enjoyed planting and that we would like to come again. He said that he was really grateful for our time and we organised another trip. When we arrived we had a big day ahead. We planted four Manuka trees. We also planted the rest of the baby flax.

What we have learnt is about is communication. We have improved on our organisation as well! Last time we weren't completely organised when we arrived. We planned a next steps list for our second trip. We had to remember coats, raincoats, lunch and gumboots. Last time we felt a little unprepared so we made sure we were each responsible for what we needed to bring and printed out a checklist for the day. We also listened to John, we were open-minded to whatever he asked us to do.

Our next steps are to encourage others to join in. We talked to Mrs Cary, our Enviro teacher and asked if we could do a presentation to let children and families know about the Working Bee that is held at Travis Wetlands every month. The next one is on the 21nd of September. We are going to try to get a team together to join us and help! We will do our presentation on the first Enviro meeting next term.

If you are interested please comment on our blog below!

Click here for more information.

George Manning House visit.

On our second visit to George Manning House we brought our IPads with us because the Activities Manager told us that the ladies wanted to learn how to play some simple apps. We researched some interesting apps and found some that would be easy for them to play. We chose Desert Maker, Pizza maker, Draw Free and Kaleidoscope and Four Pics, One Word. We had to think about how we would cater for the ladies there. Some of the people there couldn't use their hands or fingers. We had to choose games with easy to see graphics. We also had to think about their tastes and make sure none of the games were offensive.

 

On our next visit we decided to do some crafts with them because they already enjoy these activities. We researched using the internet and looked up fun activities. We then organised ourselves with things to bring. We had three activities and two people running each activity. Each group member was responsible for their own things. When we got there we got a big table and put all the stuff we needed there.

Overall we learnt we had to be patient and clear. We also spoke slowly so they could understand us. Sometimes the ladies didn't listen to us. We would try to say it again but in the end we often let them do their own thing and changed our ideas to suit them. We had to repeat ourselves and make the instructions easy to follow. The run sheet didn't go to plan in the end- we ended up all helping with one activity. We learnt that we had to communicate in this situation and be flexible. It was still good to have a run sheet because it gave us a time frame. We had something to work off.

George Manning House - slideshow

Family Support: Cards for Child Cancer

Card Making Day For The Child Cancer Foundation

We have moved the card making day to Thursday the 5^th of September as that is a buddy lunch so you can make cards with your buddies if you want to. It will also give you some more time to bring in any card decorations if you have anything special that you would like to add to the cards.

We will provide paper, some stickers and some pens but please bring your pencil case, so there will be enough pens for everybody to use.

This card making day is to support the Child Cancer Foundation – it is our chance to show the kids from the Child Cancer Foundation that we are thinking of them.

Thank you

Year 6 Exhibition

Here is the Animoto we shared for Assembly.

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Discussions with Justin Muschamp

We arranged a meeting with Justin Muschamp, who is the Head of Sport for Halberg. This is an organisation for children and adults with disabilities. He gave us some ideas about how we can help. His suggestions were playing balloon tennis with the Juniors at Ferndale school. We want to organise a day where we can come in and teach the children some games. We know it is going to be harder for these children to play the games that we play. So our plan is to choose modified games- using balloons instead of tennis balls, or flyswats instead of rackets. We will have to think about challenges like making adjustments for those in a wheel chair, or those that can't talk. We might have to make communication bags so the children can show us what they are feeling. Its important to have a range of activities and be aware of all the different disabilities so we can cater for them.

Do you have any ideas of easy games we could play? Write them on the padlet below!!

Created with Padlet

Family Support Princess Party

After our last visit to Alice Mc Donald, we knew she felt lonely. She has been unable to go to school as often because of her collapsed lung. Alice loves Princesses so we decided to hold a princess party for her. To organise this we had to make a run sheet and work out all the things that we needed. We also reflected on our experiences as a group so far.

Have your say!

After reading the Blog so far, which set of transdisciplinary skills do you think we have used the most?

Thinking Skills - Synthesis, Evaluation, Comprehension

Social Skills - Accepting Responsibility, Co-operating, Group Decision Making

Communication Skills - Listening, Speaking, Writing, Reading

Self Management Skills - Organisation, Time Management

Research Skills - Formulating Questions, Observing, Collecting Data

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We have...Ducklings!!!

  

On Tuesday we went to see Jackie from Bird Rescue. She told us a bit about the birds and what we had to do to take care of them. We needed to get some soaked cat food to feed them. Since both Harriet and Amy had cats, it was easy to get some. She also gave us a lamp, the lamp comforts them and it helps to warm them. The slightly larger duck acts like a mother duck, although it is only a week older. Some-one found him in a drain. The other four were brought in because their mum got hit by a car. Their names are Fluffy, Trouble, Quackers and Sponge (we did the naming!) But we can only tell Mother Duck and Fluffy apart from the others. We have to make sure they have a lot of food and we learnt how to pick them up safely. We will look after them until Friday.

Thinking big picture, our job is to help share Jackie's load. We also have a responsibility to spread the word and tell others what we have learnt. Please keep your cats inside at night to give the birds a chance. Drive carefully around lakes and forests and be aware! Make sure you are on alert when driving.

Click here to find out about Bird Rescue

Health and Well-being

Our group wants to raise awareness of how Mental Health can be a big problem even when it seems to be started from a small issue. To help others we wanted to start an Ultranet page called "Don't Be Scared Say it Out Loud".  We want other children to be able to log on and see that other people go through the same things as them. You have to be careful that you don't go too deep into questions, these stories are deeply personal and its a huge thing to share with the world. Thats why our page is contained within Ultranet. This ensures a safe environment for these children to share their stories. We have been reading through some documents and researching about depression and how it affects people.
We rang Stepping Stones who are an organisation that helps children and adults who deal with Mental Health. We met with Steph who is training to be a social worker. She told us that making a website was a great idea because it would boost the children's confidence. She also told us that its about raising awareness, as most adults do not realise that Mental Health has just a big an impact on children as adults.
Following this we talked to Mrs Lapthorn about our ideas and thought about Seddon, who have just gone through an Earthquake. We decided to send them a card, saying we were thinking of them. We sent an email to the Principal and asked if any of the children were willing to share their experiences with us for our webpage. We also sent a letter to Mrs Barlow, the Principal at St James in Aranui, as many of her children have been deeply affected by the earthquakes that happened in Christchurch. We are hoping these stories will help other children stay strong.

Click here to login to Ultranet and see our page. It can be found under Health and Well-being.

Ferndale School

We rang Linda from Ferndale and had a chat to the Deputy Principal. We wanted to assist the children there. Ferndale needed assistance because their gardener had a broken arm. This meant the workload in the school was getting on top of people and they really wanted a hand. We also tidied up the staffroom and chatted to the staff members. We were caring, enthusiastic and generally wanted to sit, talk and be pleasant company for the people there.

We met some of the children there and split into two groups. One group went and helped the children eat morning tea as they were unable to use their arms and could not feed themselves. We smiled and laughed with them. The other group went and taught the children there how to play word bingo. We were a little competitive but luckily they didn't mind!

  

City Mission

Today was amazing. We went to the City Mission and had a chat with Mary Woods, who works there. She showed us around the Foodbank and how it works (it wasn't like a vending machine which was news to Florry!) We have learnt about how the City Mission is run from the generosity of others. Mary challenged us to come back and organise a group of 10-15 people. She wants us to help sort the food that comes in from the public, as it has to be organised into separate family bags.

 

Our challenge is to gather a group of ten people, whether they are an adults, students or teachers and ask them to give up some of their time to assist us. Mary talked to us about the gift of time and how sometimes thats more valuable then money.