The year 5&6 groups are looking at the election - learning about what political parties are, how people vote and how a government is formed in NZ. We are going to have a Quest election. Kids get to form parties (or be independents) and campaign about what they would do if they got to run Quest for a session. We will be voting on this in week 8, and whoever wins will get to run Quest for their session in week 9.
Those who don't want to campaign or join a 'party' can help me with organising and running the election. Those who are campaigning need to come up with a party name, logo, slogan, policies, advertising etc.
We will be having speeches and debates and looking at how things are done at election time by political parties to get ideas on how to run our campaigns. I have signed up for 'Kids Voting – Te Pōti a Ngā Tamariki' and we will be sent a ballot box and other resources to make it more realistic.
Children will have to think about whether they can follow through on their election promises, and voters will need to evaluate whether they believe each campaign - should be fun!
The year 3&4 groups are off to Antarctica! Last week we experienced a little of what it feels like in the extreme cold there - we looked up the weather and it was -54C!! We thought about how people and animals would keep warm and did some experiments with buckets of ice water and our hands...
In the coming weeks we'll be looking at how climate change is affecting Antarctica, what causes it, people who are trying to make a difference, and what we can do to help if we want to.
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