Change can be useful

 We have been looking at how change can be useful - firstly in drama - what can we change (looks, clothes, voice, actions). We used this topic to also look at emotions - how do we act to show different emotions? What emotions are there? When might we feel these emotions and what can / do we do if we feel these emotions? 

A little bit of philosophy too - when is it helpful / not helpful to disguise our emotions?

I used these cute little 'kimochi' toys to start discussions on emotions. 

We created 'blob creatures' from modelling clay to show just one emotion. Some children created stop motion videos with their blob creatures. 

Anther week we looked at 'Spies, lies, and disguise' - looking at the story of Margaret Bulkley from the 1800's. She changed her name and appearance to become James Barry so she could go to university to train as a doctor, and became a well-known surgeon as James Barry. Lots of discussions from children here about how difficult that might have been and whether she should have pretended or not. We then looked at when else people might disguise who they are (undercover police, spies, people who are trying to hide for some reason etc). We created our own 'cover stories' and tried to keep to them - it was difficult to remember everything! Some children designed and created spy gadgets too. 

We also looked at the learning pit and how mistakes and struggles in learning can be the catalyst for change and learning. 

We looked at the recent launching of Artemis 1 and the difficulties they faced when trying to launch (engine trouble, fuel leak, tropical storm) and how they overcame each of these problems. We also tried to make an origami star each and thought about what we could do if we found something difficult and how we felt when we achieved something. 

Have a Happy Christmas everyone! 

CHANGE - Term 4 concept

This term we are looking at the concept of change - it's a great one as we come to the end of the year, as some will naturally be a little anxious about changes as one year finishes and another begins. Hopefully by looking at change all around us in different contexts, children will have a chance to process that change is part of life, and along the way learn a few coping strategies if needed. 

We started the term by looking at animals and change - metamorphosis, changing colours, and even looking at some cephalopods (octopus etc) that can change their skin texture! 

I asked children to list as many different animals as they could think of. If they want to know more about how many animal species are in the world then Wonderopolis has a great page about this with information and activity ideas to take learning further. 

We did a sorting and matching activity - trying to match pictures of young with adult animals. Kids were fascinated (and some disgusted!) by flounder / flat fish and how their eyes move to one side of their body as they become adults and go from an upright juvenile fish to an adult flounder. 

We watched a video about amazing cephalopods (Octopus, squid, cuttlefish) and how they can change their colour, shape and sometimes even their texture. We thought about why they make these changes. 

Some students created pipecleaner critters, some used the letters in the word METAMORPHOSIS to make words (how many can you find?), some imagined they could morph into any animal and gave reasons for why they would choose a particular animal, some researched different animals etc. 

TREASURE - continued

 This term we have been exploring the concept of treasure - things that are valuable or valued. 

FOSSILS - treasures from the past

Dinosaurs are often a poplar topic, but I decided to look more at HOW we know about dinosaurs for this session, rather than WHAT we know. 

We role-played being paleontologists, finding paper 'bones' and trying to figure out what kind of dinosaur it could be. We thought about different ways paleontologists find clues - looking at the location of bones, similarities to other bones, other clues around such as trace fossils (footprints etc), discussing ideas with others. We also talked about skills paleontologists would need - patience, perseverance, observation skills, note taking skills etc. The large 'bone' in the photo is a life-sized 3D printed giant moa femur bone.

Next we looked at inference and ideas that could be gathered from looking at trace fossils (in this case footprints). What do we think happened here? What makes us think that? What other ideas do we have? Where could we find more information to help us understand more? 

Children then explored this topic further in a variety of ways - by looking at the dinosaur books, finding out online about NZ dinosaur fossils and paleontologists, drawing their idea of a place to live if they lived in the time of dinosaurs (check out Sem's amazing detailed drawings below!), thinking about the pros and cons of having a dinosaur as a pet by making a 'plus, minus, and interesting' chart to arrange their thoughts. 

And finally, here is a simple explanation of how fossils are formed. 

TERM 3 - Treasure Concept

 TREASURE

This term we are looking at things that people treasure, noting that different people treasure different things, and not everything that we treasure costs money.

MEMORY

We started with a simple memory game - how many objects on a tray can you remember? We talked about different strategies people had used - some used repetition, some created a rhyme or song to help them remember things, some looked at objects that go together, some saved a picture in their head, some counted the objects so they could track how many they had remembered etc. It was very interesting chatting about varying strategies - great for children to see that there are many ways and to see others who might have the same strategies as them.

We looked at using mnemonics, chunking, song, looking for patterns etc with some other memory challenges. Did you know that most adults can store between 5 and 9 objects in their short term memory. So it is often difficult to remember a long phone number, but if we use 'chunking' (grouping numbers together) then we can often remember more. 

We looked at how the brain works - encoding, consolidating, and retrieving information.

Then we read a great picture book called 'Wilfred Gordon Macdonald Partridge' - about a little boy who helps and old lady find her memories. This is a great conversation starter - it talks about how some memories are happy, some are sad, some are from long ago, some make you laugh etc. We thought about why memories might be seen as treasure. 

GOLD

We acted out the Greek myth of King Midas and the golden touch, then talked about what the moral of the story might be. 

We looked at where gold comes from and the history of gold mining, and gold mining in NZ today. We also looked at how gold was important in Ancient Egypt - looking a little at Tutankhamun.

MEDALS, AWARDS, AND SUCCESS

We looked at the Commonwealth games and how people are successful. We thought about other things people get medals and awards for, and how else we might know we are successful at something. Children brainstormed things that might help make people successful (eg people to support them - parents, friends, coach; having the right equipment; have a drive and interest to do something; health; luck; skills; knowledge etc)

We looked at the 'success iceberg' and saw that behind success are many things that we don't often see. 

Language origins, advertising, and sharing ideas

 GREEKYMONS!

Many children loved inventing their own 'Greekymon' using root words from Latin and Greek to create a character. They needed to choose 2-5 root words to make a name for their character, describe what the root words meant and the powers their character has, then illustrate it. Many made more than one, and some were creating cards similar to pokemon with health points and damage points added! 

We looked at origins of English and similarities to other languages, and learnt some te reo transliterations so students could see the origin of some words. Some tried expanding their vocab in other languages, some looked at similarities between languages for some words. 

ADVERTISING

We looked at tricks advertisers can use - how they use words and images, sound, lighting, emotions to influence us. We looked at what a loss-leader is and how this is used to draw people in. We discussed what we thought was the difference between persuasive and false advertising. 

Students then set about trying to create their own advertisements.

This Honda car parts ad fascinated many. 

SHARING IDEAS

Students were given the opportunity to work on something they would like to share with others. We talked about what makes a good presentation, how people can communicate effectively. We also looked at mis-communication - what can happen when people don't understand each other, and misinformation - when people purposely try to mislead others, and what can be the consequences of this.  Students were then given the opportunity at another Quest session o share if they wanted to. We had slide shows, speeches,writing etc. Very interesting!  

GIFTED AWARENESS WEEK 2022

 Gifted Awareness Week runs each year in the week of 17 June. This particular week is chosen as it is the birthday of George Parkyn, a NZ researcher who looked at gifted children in his studies. He was a founding member of the NZ Association for Gifted Children. The 'George Parkyn Centre' was named after him when it was set up in 1995- the name of the first organisation in NZ to start up 'One Day School' (later becoming the Gifted Education Centre, now The NZ Centre for Gifted Education). 

The theme for this year's 'Gifted Awareness Week' is 'Like minds'.

What are like minds?

People who learn, think and feel in a similar way.  

How do our gifted children find like minds?

• Interest groups (eg scouts etc, sports teams, clubs, volunteer groups, cultural /religious groups, music groups, drama groups etc) - follow your child's interests or introduce them to new ideas - they might just find something they love!
• Giving them opportunities to work with both age peers and intellectual peers (schools can group students in various ways)
• When parents find like-minded friends they can often have like-minded children - don't overlook the importance of these casual catch-ups for both children and parents.
• Online groups - for older children / teens online chat groups can be useful if they are all respectful of each other's thoughts and feelings

Why is finding like minds important?

We know that often our gifted students can feel different as they often learn, think and feel differently to many of their age peers. It's important on a basic psychological level to feel that you belong and are accepted (see Maslow's hierarchy of needs, below). So finding like minds helps support this emotional and social need. 

Once that need is met it is then possible for tamariki to work towards 'self-actualisation' - being the best they can be, being creative and working towards heir potential. Like minds can help support challenge as children bounce ideas off each other or encourage each other to learn more if they have similar interests or learning ethos. 

A little of the research backing up the importance of time with like minds

"Coleman (2001) suggested that peer groups may impact gifted adolescents’ talent development because of the importance of social relationships for adolescents. Riley and White (2016) observed that opportunities for gifted students to spend time with like minded others increased opportunity for challenge when students engaged in thinking and learning with intellectual peers, thus positively influencing academic development. According to Clark (2008) gifted students placed in a regular class find it “impossible to have the support and intellectual challenge of their peer group unless such peer groups are consciously planned” (p. 236), showing that ability grouping is important to support challenge. Strong academic effects for gifted students who were grouped were noted by Rogers (2007), who also stated that the more time gifted students spend with intellectual peers, the more positive the academic and social effects will be."(Thompson, 2021)

Changes over time

 The last couple of weeks have seen us looking at changes over time to communication.

WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

We looked at the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg and how it made books (and therefore reading and writing) more accessible for all. Before the printing press books were handmade and so rare and expensive, meaning only those with wealth generally had access to books. 

We looked at how advances in writing techniques had changed - from quill and ink, to ball-point pens, to voice to text. We wondered what might be next and some creative children came up with their ideas. Many were keen to try making a quill and writing with it too. 

Looking at changes over time can add depth and complexity to learning and thinking.

LONG DISTANCE COMMUNICATION

We looked at the history of communication in NZ - this short video from MOTAT sums up the main points. 

We looked at some old telephones and the changes that had happened just in the last 50 years, and wondered about future communication. 

We had a debate on whether mobile phones should be banned in high schools - great skills for students learning to look at two sides of a debate and learning how to give reasons and be convincing. There were some strong feelings on both sides, and we looked at listening respectfully to others opinions / points of view and taking turns to respectfully voice our own opinions and give convincing reasons for those opinions. 

Debating can add depth and complexity to thinking - looking at different perspectives, and ethics. It also utilises and enhances verbal and reasoning skills. 

COMMUNICATION - Term 2 2022

 This term we are looking at the concept of communication. Each week we complete some activities together - discussions, games, brainstorming, watching a video to illustrate some new learning etc. Then year 3-6 children have the choice of a variety of ideas to take their learning further.

We started by looking at the different types of communication - verbal and non-verbal. Did you know that some common gestures that we use are different in some countries? 

We also looked at the importance of listening as part of good communication, and we tried out some listening games to practice this.

Some children played a board game to practice their communication skills, some learnt about the skills of listening, some learnt the art of mime and tried some out, some worked on writing a story or poem of their choice. 

Next we looked at animal communication - what they are trying to communicate and how. We tried finding a scent and looked at how ants use pheromone trails to find their home, and show each other where to find food. Some researched an animal of their choice to see how they communicate, some acted out an animal communicating and had a friend guess what they were tying to communicate, some drew pictures of animals and labelled the parts they use for communication, and some enjoyed a bit of fantasy and humour looking at these animals 'talking' on BBC 'walk on the wild side'. 

Codes are ways to communicate quickly and/or in secret. We looked at different codes and ciphers and tried to find patterns to help us crack the codes. Children tried making their own codes, some tried computer coding using scratch, some looked at the history of codes and where they were used, some tried using the morse code machine that I had in class. 

Connections

 This term we are exploring connections in various contexts.

CONNECTIONS IN THINKING

We looked at how the brain works - exploring neurons and synapses and how we learn. We thought about ourselves and the best ways we learn, and the many ways that people can learn. We discussed what we can do if we find something hard to learn - what helps us? And we thought about things that we enjoy learning or we find easy to learn - what is it that makes it enjoyable and/or easy?

Tamariki enjoyed trying out wordles (and globle, heardle, nerdle, birdle!) to stretch their brains. Some created their own puzzles. Some made scratch games about the brain. Some tried learning something new. 

CONNECTION WITH THE LAND

What makes us feel connected to a place? We found out that connections are formed when you have good memories from a place - somewhere you have been on holiday, with family and friends, where you were born or where ancestors are from, where you feel safe. We looked at tūrangawaewae (a place to stand) - the Māori concept of places we feel connected to. 

Some tamariki chose to look at their pepeha, some looked at place names and their meanings, some connected with nature with mindfulness activities and creating things, some designed bridges to connect land. 

CONNECTIONS WITH EACH OTHER

We found things we had in common with each other and talked about similarities, differences, what makes a good friend etc. We talked about not 'judging a book by it's cover' and found out how much more we could learn about others by getting to know them and taking the time to chat to them.

CONNECTORS ON CLOTHING

We started by looking at buttons and how buttons changed fashion by allowing clothes to be made that could fit closer to the body. We brainstormed other clothing connectors (zips, velcro, buckles, laces etc). 

We looked at button collectors and discussed other things people collect. Many had stories of their own collections. We looked at different uses for connectors like buttons, zips, velcro.

Some students sorted buttons - classifying them into colours, shapes, sizes. Some created art with buttons, some learnt how to sew on a button, some researched the history of velcro, zips etc, some discovered creative ways of threading laces, some designed new ideas for clothing connectors.

CONNECTION WITH THE LIVING WORLD

How do we affect living things and how do they affect us? We looked at Whales and how humans can affect their lives, and we looked at how whales affect our lives. Did you know that a whale's role in the marine ecosystem plays a ket part in helping combat climate change? 

Here's a fascinating video about that:

BRIDGES - CONNECTING PLACES

Where are bridges used? We looked at a range of bridge types and places they are used. We then tried to create our own bridges, looking at how to make them strong.

Hello 2022

 After several months of online learning for Quest last year we were delayed starting this year due to restrictions on groups. 

We are finally starting back this week and I am so excited to see all the students. I haven't worked with them in person since early August 2021!

We are starting this year with the concept of connection - re-connecting with each other and looking at other concepts of connection the rest of the term.